


Higher Causes

by ReturningWriter



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Bisexual Kara Danvers, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Idiots in Love, Kara Danvers Needs a Hug, Kara Danvers isn't Supergirl, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Lena Luthor-centric, POV Lena Luthor, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Kara Danvers, References to Addiction, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-01-23 16:04:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 69,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21322912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReturningWriter/pseuds/ReturningWriter
Summary: In an alternate universe a couple of dimensional shifts away from Earth-38 there are no super-powers and no heroes and Under Secretary, Lena Luthor stands outside the Oval Office waiting to meet the President of the United States following a scandal that's shaken the State Department to its core. She doesn't know it yet, but her journey towards greatness is about to begin where along the way, she'll meet Kara Danvers and if she's lucky she'll hopefully learn a bit about both the elusive blonde and herself.So with the help of her best friend Maggie and back-up from big brother Lex she'll have to fight through adversity, harness her inner-strength and intelligence and figure out who is out to get her, because no matter the universe someone is always out to get you if you're a Luthor, right?Also, Kara Danvers in a tight Men in Black style suit, who doesn't like that?
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 153
Kudos: 375





	1. We Serve

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again guys, so this is the first chapter of my little AU story I've been toying around with since finishing my last story (it's Hope and Willpower check it out it's kinda good I've been told). I've been wanting to do a different kind of story and get to use some of that Madam Secretary binging I've been doing for a good purpose. I will update this hopefully semi-regularly family and work-life allowing. So enjoy Higher Causes, please.

Lena Luthor, one of six Under Secretaries of State stood outside the Oval Office playing with her LexCorp smartwatch as she waited to be called in. Having given up on the family business in what her mother had dubbed the grand betrayal, she'd entered public service to do something that mattered instead of simply raising LexCorp's stock value. Now one year into her post as an Under Secretary of State, the youngest ever she might add, she was being summoned by the President. Undoubtedly for a chewing out followed by firing from her post as she'd been brought in by her stupid boss who had not been able to keep it in his pants. 

Yesterday a scandal involving Secretary of State of Matthews had broken and it was dominating the news cycle. The Secretary and by that fact her boss had been busted with a high-class escort at a seedy motel outside DC and on a nearby television screen, the footage of him with his peppered black hair disheveled doing a perp-walk wearing only his star-spangled boxers and a white t-shirt was playing on repeat. Making a fist she tore her green eyes from the screen because right now she wanted to somehow punch him in the face through the television for putting her in this situation.

Adjusting her tight ponytail that held her raven-black hair in place and pulling down the front of her red blouse she checked her watch again and sighed. At least the pizza binging last night hadn't gone to her hips yet she thought and smoothed down her skirt before chastising herself for worrying about something like that right now, she loved her curves but her stupid brain was all over the place. Why couldn’t they have sent her a pink-slip or a text, anything but this agonizing wait! 

"He's ready for you, Miss Luthor," the friendly-looking secretary said with a smile and the doors opened, giving her what was her first up-close view of the Oval office. Waiting inside were President John Jones and his chief of staff Alex Danvers. Taking a deep breath, she stepped inside and the door closed behind her with a thudding sound of finality.

"Lena Luthor, I’m glad you could make it on such short notice," President Jones, a tall and deep-voiced man greeted her while offering his hand which she took. He had the strong and well-practiced grip of a seasoned politician but there was a kindness about the man that almost put her at ease.

"I serve at the pleasure of the president," she replied diplomatically while shaking his hand and glanced towards Alex Danvers.

"Take a seat, please, I assume you've seen the news?" he asked, offering her a seat on one of the two couches in the middle of the office and she carefully sat down. Crossing her legs before fixing her green eyes on the President of the United States and it took all of her self-control not to laugh.

"It has been hard not to," she answered diplomatically again and to her surprise, the President smiled at her.

John Jones had run on a liberal platform and won the last election quite comfortably and her limited interactions with him over the past year had given her the distinct impression that he was by all accounts a good man. His chief of Staff Alex Danvers, however, was a cold-blooded politician and a creature from the depths of the DC underworld and she didn't trust the leggy and pantsuit wearing brunette further than she could throw her. 

“How are things at the State Department?” he asked her and again this felt off. Was he toying with her by making small talk or was he trying to ease her into things? Why couldn’t the man just fire her already? 

"Yes, the incident comes at an inconvenient time for the State Department," she went on trying to be professional and diplomatic in her choice of words, but the president only gave a low unconvinced hum in response to them.

"That sounded almost political but Lena, I can call you Lena I hope, why don't you tell me what you really think?" he asked leaning back on the couch as Alex Danvers watched her like a hawk Taking a deep breath she decided that if she was going out then fuck it, it would be on her terms and true to herself and her moral compass.

"Truthfully, Matthews fucking blew it, sir," she stated with more vitriol than she intended, and she launched into the angry rant that had been bubbling inside her since last night.

"He's a god-damned disgrace to the position and its long and proud history, this will set us back years when it comes to our diplomatic relations with our more conservative partners, Russia and China are no doubt jumping at the chance to push us out in South-East Asia and the Middle-East and then I can only imagine what his wife is feeling right now," she went on speaking her mind and screw being diplomatic as she was after all here to be dismissed from her post anyways.

"That's one way to put it, and I thought you were friends," Alex Danvers spoke up dryly having been checking something on a tablet bearing the presidential seal.

"I came into contact with him during my time at LexCorp and yes he brought me on board to fill one of the Under Secretary posts after I lobbied him for it, which I am more than qualified for I might add, but I wouldn't call us friends," she said and tried her best to stare the woman down with the full force of her convictions.

"Yes we know, your academic and professional record is impressive for someone so young, one would almost say that you're over-qualified," Alex said tapping on her tablet while meeting her stare with a look of almost disinterest as the president cleared his throat to end their standoff.

Taking a breath she waited for the blow to come, going back to working with Lex wouldn't be so bad she tried to convince herself, the benefits were good and going back to Metropolis wouldn’t be the end of the world if she could avoid her exes and then the President dropped a bombshell on her.

"How would you like the job?" President Jones asked her, and she froze up, her brain stopped working and god she hoped she didn’t look like a goldfish right now with her mouth open.

"Sir?" she asked looking at the grinning President hoping her jaw hadn't become loose from her skull after it had dropped.

"Mike blew it as you put it, but we've been going through your file and your record and you don't sound like a person that would do that," he said and leaned forward with that same grin on his face it was almost as if he was amused that she was so shocked.

"The optics wouldn't hurt either, and you're already polling well with young voters," Alex Danvers added with a cynical smile and she didn't like the woman one bit she decided then and there. 

Polling, how she hated that word when she’d stepped away from LexCorp it had been to play politics, she'd joined the State Department to serve a higher cause and do something to try to make the world a better place. Now, however, she had to reign in her temper and draw on that corporate background of hers because her instincts were telling her that something was off here, women in their twenties aren't offered prestigious postings like this out of the blue. It was the post of Secretary of State, meaning that with it she’d the highest-ranking member of the cabinet and the third-highest official of the executive branch. Thank you, High School civics class, she thought. Yet she wasn’t stupid, in fact, she was a genius and even as Under Secretary she was pretty far down in the line of succession.

"Sir, I'm… honored, but why me?" she asked trying to process what was had been offered to her, but she needed more information first and to stall for time to read the room.

"I’ll be blunt with you, the Deputy Secretary has already jumped ship and with others set to follow suit in an effort to distance themselves from the scandal the best they can," President Jones explained and she could hear the faint hint of disdain in the man’s voice.

“I see, and am I correct in guessing that this be more than an interim posting until you find someone straight or at least not openly out, with a strong enough jawline and a Y-chromosome that polls well in the Midwest to accept the job once the media moves onto the next story?” she asked while internally she cursed her pride. A part of her mind was shouting for her to be gracious and take the offer but even if she didn’t play the political game it didn’t mean she didn’t understand how the game was played.

“Told you she was a fighter,” the President told Alex Danvers with a laugh and he was smiling at her now much to her surprise.

“It would be an interim posting, yes, but no we’re not looking into other candidates at this moment and no your sexuality doesn’t matter as long as you do the job to the best of your abilities,” he then said to her actual surprise but she didn’t let that phase her..

“So, you’d want me to prove myself while on the job am I correct?” she asked assuming the demeanor she’d perfected in the LexCorp boardrooms. 

“Yes, I won’t lie to you, as Alex said there are political motivations behind me offering you the post, but everything in your file indicates that you have the backbone needed to excel at this job,” he answered and she could see Alex Danvers frowning at how open and honest the President was being with her.

“Very well, then I want six months to get the State Department back on track without interference and if the end of that period I’m not living up to your expectations of me you can fire me,” she offered the President knowing that she would need time to fix things after the mess Matthews had made on her terms. 

There was a silence that hung between them for a moment, she could feel both President Jones and Alex Danvers studying her as the Chief of Staff whispered something to the man and he nodded back at the brunette.

“Six months, at which point Alex will do an audit of your performance,” he then offered her, and the snake of staff Danvers had the audacity to smile at her. 

“Then I think we have a deal, Mister President,” she said and allowed herself to smirk and when the man stood, she shot to her feet.

"Call me John and I see great things in your future Lena," he said with an encouraging look on his face and she felt herself believing him.

After a quick handshake she was ushered out of the office once the president's next appointment arrived and the first thing, she did was to find a quiet hallway to get her bearings straight. Leaning against the wall and she took a few deep breaths with one hand on her fast-beating heart. Interim Secretary of State that was quite the promotion and on top of that she'd played hardball with the most powerful man on the planet and won. Once she calmed down, she started making a mental checklist of what she had to do and what people from her office she'd have to bring with her until a soft voice interrupted her train of thought.

"Madam Secretary?" a stunning blonde woman asked her, and her brain short-circuited for a moment at the sight of her. The tall blonde was dressed in a fitted black suit with a white earpiece and a small badge on her lapel marking her as a special agent of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

"I think so," she replied slowly being still a bit taken aback by the statuesque blonde and if she'd not just been promoted her reply would have been wittier. Now she found herself studying the woman that towered over her. Her face was friendly if a bit intimidating, but honestly, she was downright beautiful and to top it all of she had piercing blue eyes that exuded professionalism but also warmth. Looking up she saw that the agent’s long blonde hair was held in a single thick braid and she was almost a head taller than her, making her feel every bit of her five foot and three inches height even with heels on.

"Agent Danvers," the blonde introduced herself with a tiny smile before speaking into the cuff of her jacket. "Dove located, I'll escort her to the motorcade," she reported.

"Motorcade?" she asked having driven herself here in her LexCorp electric car. A gift from big brother Lex to better get around Washington D.C. and to pick up those hot interns as he'd put it.

"Per presidential decree you're as of this moment interim Secretary of State which entitles you to among other things a full security detail by the DS," agent Danvers explained to her while seeming to be always alert and on the lookout for unseen dangers.

"But my car, I can't just leave it at the White House," she laughed as the reality of this all started to set in. Leaning back against the wall under a portrait of Thomas Jefferson she again became aware just how tall Agent Danvers was and what hot water she'd landed herself in professionally.

"I see, in that case, please give me the keys to your vehicle ma’am," the blonde asked or more accurately ordered her but nicely, holding out her hand with her palm turned upward. The look on the woman's face also left no room for arguments, but there was this faint hint of sweetness to her as well. Making it very hard to say no.

"Fine, give me a second and I guess you're driving us?" she huffed while fumbling around for her keys under the agent's watchful eye.

Finding them in her pocket she dropped the keychain the blonde agent's calloused palm and then looking down at her outfit she adjusted it to look a bit more presentable while inactively flashing the blonde some serious cleavage. The agent's blue eyes darted down for a split second and then straight up again or so she thought. Because when she looked up again the blonde was staring straight ahead without any hint of interest in her and maybe her over-stressed mind was playing tricks on her. 

"Correct, now come with me ma'am," the blonde ordered her, and she wanted to argue but was too shell-shocked to do so and not to mention distracted by the agent. Get it together Luthor you’re Secretary of State now, she reminded herself following agent Danvers and trying not to check her out.

Once outside the agent held the passenger door open for her and she slid into her little red car mindful of her skirt before the door closed behind. The car shifted when the agent sat in the driver’s seat and pressed the button which started the car. It had been a very nice gift from big brother Lex but It was also a two-seater sports-model of the LexCorp electric car which meant that she was very close to the agent now and the woman smelled earthy for the lack of a better term. 

“Cool,” she could hear the agent say quietly when the overhead display in the windshield lighted up and strong hands caressed the leather steering wheel. No, no, no, get it together Luthor now is not the time to stress-lust after your secret service detail and remember that you can't afford any distractions right now she reminded herself.

Once they left the White House grounds a motorcade formed around them and she kept checking out the profile of Agent Danvers' face illuminated by the streetlamps they passed in between looking behind to see the black SUV trailing them. The drive was mercifully quiet as she got on her phone started messaging her chief of staff Maggie Sawyer telling her to meet her at the State Department tomorrow and bring coffee. Then she shot a message to her brother, Lex, telling him to keep an eye on the news tomorrow morning and even though she was persona non grata with her parents she still kept in touch with Lex. 

"Take the next right and then go halfway down the street," she said looking up from her phone and pointing the way to which the agent nodded.

"I know ma'am, I was briefed," the blonde answered crisply not taking her blue eyes off the road.

Reaching her apartment building they pulled to the curb and the agent stepped out of the car before she had a chance to unbuckle her seatbelt to open the door for her with utter professionalism while checking the perimeter. 

"You didn't have to do that," she said but found herself smiling at the woman. It felt weirdly comforting having someone drive her home like this, even if it was the blonde's job.

"Part of the job," the blonde agent shrugged escorting her to the front door of her building. Door to door escort, this hadn't happened since high school an annoying voice in her head teased her.

"Are you coming up with me? Because I’ve not had company in ages," she asked teasingly with a raised eyebrow and that rational part of her brain screamed at her not to tease her security detail and stick to the no distractions plan.

"Yes ma'am," the blonde stated crisply either missing or ignoring her teasing. "Sorry, but it is protocol," she then added seeming to sense the upcoming argument.

"Fine, fine just be warned it's a mess," she said motioning for the blonde to follow her into the lobby. The blonde agent nodded towards the black SUV parked by the curb before following her inside.

In the elevator she tried not to look at the woman, but it was hard as this also reminded her that it had in fact been ages since anyone was inside her apartment beside Maggie. Not that she thought of the agent like that of course, it would take more than broad shoulders and beautiful blue eyes to distract her, but damn those were some impressive shoulders. Yep, cold shower time followed by a big glass of red wine was definitely in order.

The elevator opened with a ding onto her floor and the agent stepped out in front of her and escorted her to the door after doing a quick sweep of the hallway, clearly knowing exactly where to go. Unlocking the door, she felt her hands shaking slightly under the woman's steely gaze and her breath caught in her throat when a strong hand on her shoulder stopped her from entering. 

“I need to do a sweep, again I’m sorry it’s protocol,” the agent told her and stepped into her apartment.

“The pizza boxes are from last night… honest,” she lamely excused the mess that greeted them as the agent went from room to room and gave her a brief understanding smile once done with her sweep.

"I’m all done ma'am. Now, if there is anything else you need or if you have any further questions about your security then you can reach me through this number and don’t worry you get used to us being around even if this might appear a bit overwhelming at first," Agent Danvers said with slightly larger and friendlier smile before pulling out her phone and writing a text that pinged on her phone a moment later.

"Understood, before you go can I ask you something?" she asked pulling out her phone to save the contact information. The agent had a really cute smile beneath all that professional steel she projected. Knock... it... out... Luthor, she chastised herself.

"Of course, ma'am," the agent said almost snapping to attention and she assumed that there was some military background there as well.

"What's your name?" she asked smiling at the woman who relaxed a bit since the question wasn't regarding security.

"Kara, ma'am, Kara Zora Danvers," the blonde said giving a hint of a beaming smile and gods that smile was so bright that it was almost like staring into the sun.

"Any relation to Chief of Staff Alex Danvers?" she asked saving the number under the name Agent K in her phone since the woman was, after all, a man in black.

"Adoptive Sister, her parents took me in when I was 12," the agent answered with her smile fading and she wanted to kick herself for causing it to go away.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry," she apologized right away worried that she'd struck a nerve with the statuesque blonde agent.

"It's alright ma'am, and it was a long time ago. Now if there is nothing else I'll be outside in the car," the blonde agent said before glancing down the hall towards the elevator.

"Very well you are dismissed Agent Danvers," she said and why was she smiling so much around this woman she thought. The blonde gave a small salute clearly out of habit and turned on her heel before striding towards the elevator.

After watching the agent leave she turned towards the sanctuary of her apartment where she threw herself on the couch and groaned. Smooth Luthor real smooth she thought to herself. 

"You're dismissed Agent Danvers, ugh…" she said to herself and sat up pulling her laptop towards her. 

The news wouldn't be released until morning, so she had roughly twelve hours of normal life left according to her calculations. Secretary of State Luthor maybe that would finally get her back in the good graces of her mother, she thought and found herself checking her phone before having an idea and texting Agent Danvers’ number.

_You guys hungry in that car?_ she typed and hit send, not really sure how to deal with having a security detail having always refused one when working at LexCorp.

_You don't have to do that ma'am_ the agent replied promptly with a smiley face.

_Look I'm feeling guilty already about you guys being stuck out there so pizza or Chinese?_ she typed back and waited for a reply while tapping her phone against her chin.

_If you insist ma'am then Chinese please, with an extra helping of potstickers please and thank you, ma'am, _ was the reply followed by two smiley faces and prayer hands.

_On their way Agent Danvers have a good night_ she typed back and found herself smiling and was rewarded with more smiley faces. Agent Danvers was a very different person in texts than in person and maybe this security detail wouldn't be such a bad thing she thought as she turned her attention to the monumental task ahead of her.

* * *

The next she found herself behind a large desk cradling her head in her hands. The first day on the job was turning out to be a rough one, scratch that it had been a disaster so far. Most of Secretary Matthew’s staff had resigned or simply not shown up, not wanting to be associated with his scandal or by proxy her interim position. Lex had sent her a congratulatory message thought promising to catch up soon now and her mother had messaged her that she really should do something with her hair, so par for the course there. Meanwhile, the headlines blared out that Luthor heiress seizes power! Her posting dominated the morning shows were the talking heads were questioning her credentials, gender, sexuality and even how she dressed and yes how she did her hair. Glancing down at her navy-blue pantsuit, she unconsciously buttoned up her blouse and then groaning undid it again. No way was she having a group of middle-aged men tell her how to dress.

"Madam Secretary," a woman she'd not met before came in with a stack of papers to sign.

"Yes… sorry but I haven't gotten around to memorizing names," she apologized, and the woman smiled at her.

"Jess, Madam Secretary, I work in the records department," the woman said dropping the heavy pile of papers on her desk.

"Nice to meet you Jess and what are all these?" she asked and flipped through the stack.

"Resignation letters mostly, sad to say most of the departing Secretary's staff are jumping ship," the woman explained to her with a frown.

"Figures, tell me, Jess, what do you do down there in the bowels of the beast?" she asked pulling out a pen and clicking it before picking up the first letter.

"We call it the Moria, Madam Secretary, and well this place produces a whole lot of paper that needs to be filed and sorted," Jess explained sounding proud at what she did.

"I believe that and damn this is going to take ages," she said to herself signing the first letter with her flowing signature of Lena Kieran Luthor.

"I could lend you a hand if you want," Jess offered with a friendly smile and she wasn't proud of it, but she jumped on the woman's offer like a drowning man clinging to a piece of driftwood.

"God yes and thank you," she said with a grateful smile as the woman pulled up a chair and started helping her going through the pile.

"I'll sort these by priority, then you read them over and put down your Joan Hancock, sort to speak," Jess said sorting through the papers at great speed and her eyes darting up and down each page. 

An hour later they were mercifully done and her writing hand was cramping up something fierce as she flexed her fingers with a groan. 

"Thank you again. Jess, tell me something, do you like working in Records?" she asked as the woman was arranging the papers and making sure the stack was neat and tidy.

"It can get a bit dull Madam Secretary, but we all do our part here, right?" she admitted and flashed a guilty smile.

"That’s true, but my secretary ran for the hills and I think Matthew’s former secretary is suing him for sexual harassment, so if you want the desk outside is free," she offered the woman who looked at her in shock.

"Madam Secretary, I…" Jess started but she held up her hand and smiled at the woman.

"I looked up your records while you were getting another pen, you're more than qualified and as you can see I need the help, so what do you say?" she asked flashing a look she hoped conveyed how badly understaffed she was.

"I'll… I'll… just file these and move my stuff up here," Jess said after a moment’s thought and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Jess you're literally saving my sanity right now," she said having never felt this grateful towards a person before.

"We are all here to serve, right?" her new secretary asked and flashed her a smile before leaving her to her echoing office.

Serving was proving quite the challenge as the morning wore on. Jess moved her belongings to the desk just outside her office door and thankfully her Chief of Staff arrived with coffee and a smile, late of course, but she was glad to see her friend none the less. 

"Love the new digs!" Maggie Sawyer whistled stepping through the doors as always dressed unorthodoxly in a three-piece suit and shoes with spats.

"Maggie where have you been?" she asked and rubbed her temples having just come of a tense phone call with the Russian ambassador who was using what he perceived as her inexperience to throw his weight around and it had taken all of her considerable patience to diplomatically put him in his place without starting World War Three.

"I've been running around DC finding you a brand new staff little Luthor and your coffee of course," Maggie said sauntering up to her desk with a stack of files under her arm and a steaming cup of coffee in the other.

"God please no more paperwork, but gimme that!" she begged and held out her hands grasping desperately for the Starbucks’ cup in her friend's hand.

"Sorry LL but that's the job unless you want to run the State Department with just me and that cute girl sitting at the desk outside?" Maggie asked handing her the cup before pointing her thumb towards the door.

"Down girl, we don't partake of the company ink remember," she reminded her chief of staff and taking a long well-deserved sip of her coffee.

Maggie had been with her since her LexCorp days, first as an advisor on some of the law enforcement projects she'd worked on and then as a partner on those same projects when she's realized that the woman was brilliant. Granted the woman was sarcastic and randy like a tomcat sometimes, but brilliant nonetheless and when she'd announced she was leaving LexCorp Maggie had simply asked; where are we going boss?

"Yes, Madam Secretary, but thanks to me running around all morning we should be fully staffed by the end of the week," Maggie said with a self-satisfied smirk and she had to hand it to the woman she got things done.

“What would I do without you?” she asked while still eyeing the files under Maggie’s arm with open disdain.

“Try to do everything yourself and burn out most likely, now get to reading,” her Chief of Staff laughed and slammed the files down on the desk.

“I was thinking more along the lines of lunch?” she asked knowing her friend’s weaknesses better than most. 

"Oh no, you've exploited my one weakness, a free lunch!" Maggie exclaimed grabbing her heart in dramatic fashion.

"Drama queen, now this offer will last exactly the time it takes me to finish this coffee," she threatened her friend taking another sip of from her cup. Yep here was the nation's top diplomat at work ladies and gentlemen, she thought.

"Lead the way Madam Secretary," Maggie said with a mock bow and grinned at her. 

Outside the State Department she ran into someone she didn't really want to see and at the same time kind of wanted to see but not with Maggie Sawyer around. Had she dreamed about the blonde last night, maybe a little, and had she been disappointed when the agent picking her up at her apartment hadn’t been Agent Danvers, oh most definitely. 

"Ma'am," Agent Kara Zora Danvers greeted her holding the door to a black SUV open with her blue eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses while again dressed in a pressed black suit and a white blouse.

"Agent Danvers," she nodded and damn it why was she smiling now. Resisting the urge to dive into the back of the car, she slid into the backseat with Maggie grinning like the Cheshire cat slipping in next to her.

"Where to ma'am?" The agent asked getting behind the wheel and looking at her in the rearview mirror.

"Got any suggestions for a Bureau of Diplomatic Security approved place to have lunch Agent Danvers?" she asked, and she found herself smiling at the agent.

"There is a nice Italian place not far from here, best slice within a ten-mile radius I promise you,” the agent reported and started the car.

“Very well, take us there please,” she asked, and the SUV pulled away from the curb as she glanced at Maggie who was typing something on her phone.

_What’s with the smiling LL_ the message popped up onto her phone and she glanced at her friend.

_What I can smile or is that not allowed anymore_ she typed back and frowned at her phone. Maggie was one of her oldest friends and she loved her to bits, but the woman had a way of getting under her skin sometimes. 

_You’re Lena Luthor, you smirk and you grin but that was a full-blown aww shucks smile…_ Maggie wrote back.

_No it was not! You’re being crazy_ she typed back while still frowning which agent Danvers noticed of course.

“You alright back there, ma’am?” Kara asked and she had to remind herself that it was agent Danvers, not Kara.

“Yes, just got an annoying message from someone, I’m fine,” she assured the blonde and her phone vibrate again but she ignored it.

“Very well ma’am, we'll be there soon,” agent Danvers nodded, and she found herself smiling at the blonde again to which Maggie rolled her eyes.

The restaurant was quite nice, small and intimate and the slice of pepperoni pizza she got was probably the best she’d had since moving to DC. Maggie wasn’t a happy camper, however, as she munched on her slice and threw daggers at her with her eyes. 

“Will you knock it off,” she whispered to her friend who bit emphatically into her slice in response and kept glaring at her.

“Fine, she’s cute I'll give you that but I’ve known her for less than twenty-four hours and she’s part of my security detail, so knock it off,” she hissed, and Maggie’s glare gave way to a smile.

“Ha! I knew it,” Maggie declared, and she threw a piece of pepperoni at her friend in response.

“I don’t have time for anything like that and she strikes me as someone who takes her job seriously too, so let it rest, please Maggie,” she sighed and glanced at the tall blonde who was standing guard by the door. 

“Fine, but tell me do you know if she's related to Alex Danvers aka the snake of staff?” her friend asked and followed her line of sight towards the alert looking agent.

“Yes, they’re sisters, Kara said that she was adopted by the Danvers family when she was twelve, why do you ask?” she asked curiously, and Maggie’s face lit up with excitement at that little bit of information. 

“Interesting… so that’s Captain Danvers,” her friend said and now she was curious what that meant.

“Captain Danvers?” she asked and took a bite of her slice waiting for Maggie to fill her in.

“I might have done some digging into Alex Danvers when you messaged me that she’d been grading our performance in six months,” her friend admitted, and she gave her a look of shock since this wasn't how she played the game for the most part.

“Oh, give me a break LL, it’s DC and it's what you pay me to do so get over it. Anyways I wanted to know who we are up against so I did some digging and in Alex Danvers’ files there are mentions of a sister who is a former Navy Seal Captain and we’re talking some big medals too,” Maggie went on and dismissed her shocked look with a wave of her half-eaten pizza slice.

“Explains the saluting and how she snapped to attention,” she agreed and again checked out the tall blonde which was becoming a habit she'd have to break.

“So do you want me to do some digging into her?” Maggie asked with an excited look on her face and in another life, the woman would have made a great detective she was sure of that.

“No, that won’t be necessary, now finish up your pizza we’ve got a lot of work waiting for us back at the State Department,” she said, having thought about it for a moment but deciding that it was none of her business what agent Danvers past was.

“Yes sir, Madam Secretary,” Maggie saluted with the crust of her pizza slice and she shook her head with a laugh.

Later, back in her office she tapped her pen against her laptop and again debated if she should look up more about the blonde agent but again her moral compass wouldn’t allow her to do that, so instead she buried herself in work and tried to put the smiling blonde out of her mind for now. After all, the last thing she needed right now was a distraction and boy agent Danvers had the potential to be a big one. But she could be just friends with a woman, right? Right?


	2. Slices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pizza brings people together and Lena keeps putting her foot in her mouth around Agent Danvers

One week after being appointed Interim Secretary of State by Presidential decree, Lena Luthor was neck-deep in international politics along with helping the State Department recover from the scandal that had rocked it and it was challenging and frustrating her in equal measure. The Russians, the Chinese and even the bloody British were all making moves thinking she was nothing more than some pretty face put into the position for the sole purpose of bolstering President Jones’ approval ratings after the Matthews scandal broke. They were quickly discovering that she wasn't just pretty and slightly egomaniacal but also smarter than any of them. The downside to all this diplomatic ass-kicking that she was dishing out was that she’d been burning the midnight oil hard. and now, yet again, she was the last person in the office with Maggie and her staff long gone, and only Jess remaining at her desk outside.

“Jess can you come in here please?” she called out pinching the bridge of her nose giving up momentarily trying to word a communique to the British ambassador in the right way. Though right now it read, that if the man was so worried about her sexuality, he should not bring his daughter to the next state dinner because you never know what those lesbians might get up to. It wasn't what she'd send of course but she wanted the international community to know that you didn’t mess with Lena Kieran Luthor. 

“What is ma’am?” her assistant asked stepping into her office and promoting the woman from the records department was proving to have been a smart move, she was always on time, always professionally dressed and always ready to lend a hand. 

“Can you order a pepperoni pizza for me please with extra pepperoni and then you can head home,” she said, and the woman smiled at her.

“Oh no I’m here until you leave, but do you want a drink with that?” Jess asked and jotted down her order.

“Yes please can you get me a large bottle of Coke and Jess… thank you,” she said and smiled at the woman who nodded and went to place the order.

Turning her attention back to her laptop she zoned out trying to rewrite her rebuke to the puffed-up British ambassador until a knock on the doorframe to her office drew a part of her attention and she waved towards the couch and coffee table by the wall. Smelling the pizza her stomach grumbled but she was still struggling how to diplomatically tell somebody to stick their trade proposal where the sun doesn’t shine. In fact, she was sure there was a place in Mayfield, Nebraska where that place existed. 

“Thank you you can just put it down over there,” she said and didn’t even look up, that was until the voice of the person carrying her pizza made her jump to attention.

“Will there be anything else Madam Secretary?” Agent Danvers asked with a smirk when she looked up and saw the black-suited blonde placing the steaming box of pizza down along with a large bottle of soda and napkins.

“I… you... why are you here and where is Jess?” she asked before she could gather her thoughts as the blonde stood to attention at her questioning.

“Your assistant is at her desk and the delivery guy didn’t have clearance. So, since my shift was ending I thought it would be best that I’d bring the pizza to you instead of vetting the delivery guy,” the blonde explained standing with her arms behind her back at full attention and ramrod straight.

“In that case care to join me for a slice?” she asked feeling a bit guilty for having snapped at the blonde like that as she realized that she was clearly more on edge than she had thought.

“Is that an order ma’am?” the blonde agent asked with a raised eyebrow still standing at attention and Maggie's revelation that the blonde had been a Navy Seal came back to the forefront of her mind.

“It’s a… request… and the pizza is from that place you recommended to me a week ago,” she answered with a smirk, sweetening the deal a tiny bit and that did it. The blonde’s professional demeanor wavered, and beautiful blue eyes glanced at the box. Knock it off Luthor, she reminded herself firmly. 

“Well… I guess one slice wouldn’t hurt…” the blonde conceded, and she stood up with a smile. Hold on why am I smiling she thought to herself, it’s a slice of pizza, not a date and damn it all to hell I’m more desperate for companionship that I thought.

“Please, have a seat and I’ll get us some glasses,” she offered the blonde and retrieved two whiskey tumblers hidden inside an antique globe in the corner of the office that doubled as a liquor cabinet. Installed by one of her predecessors during a more causal time when it came to office etiquette. 

Watching the blonde sitting down out of the corner of her eye, she saw the woman’s jacket open and made a note to ask Maggie about what types of guns the agents protecting her were issued because the agent was carrying two. Also, did the woman own any other clothes then black suits? She couldn’t help but wonder before clamping down on that thought hard. 

“Go on, have a slice,” she insisted as she poured them a tumbler full of Coke each as the blonde opened the box and pulled out a slice with a hint of a smile.

Taking a seat she realized that the couch was quite small and that meant she was sitting very close to Agent Danvers. Ignoring the close quarters, however, she handed the blonde her glass and the blonde nodded her thanks while happily chewing on her slice then a moan escaped the woman’s lips and she thought she might pass out at haring it. You want to be her friend, remember, she reminded herself with a kick to her mental butt. 

“So good…” the blonde agent moaned after swallowing a piece and washing it down with a generous sip of her drink.

“Thought you were a pot-stickers girl,” she teased the blonde a little and was rewarded with a small smile again.

“Any junk food will do, but this pizza is to die for,” the blonde said and biting into her slice she had to admit the woman was right.

“See?” the blonde asked while looking at her expectantly chewing and swallowing and part of her liked having the agent paying attention to her like this.

“You do know your junk food Agent Danvers,” she conceded, and the blonde did a slight bounce before her training kicked in again

“How has your first week been?” the blonde asked after a moments silence and she got the distinct impression the woman was breaking some kind of code of conduct by asking her that.

“Hectic, but you’ve been driving me all over the place, so you probably guessed that much,” she said and picked up another slice.

“You’ve kept us busy, yes, but compared to Matthews you’re a walk in the park,” the blonde agreed with her assessment of how the week had been.

“Did… did you guys know about his… nighttime activities?” she asked and the blonde frowned but then nodded her head slightly.

“You guys keep a lot of secrets I take it?” she asked, and the blonde tensed up signaling she’d pushed too far against some undefined limit about what could and could not be discussed.

“I’m not at liberty to divulge that information Madam Secretary,” the blonde said defensively getting ready to stand up and good job Luthor you had to go fishing for information.

“I’m sorry if I overstepped any bounds,” she apologized right away but the blonde agent stood up regardless.

“You weren’t aware of the protocol and thank you for the slice,” the blonde said politely, and she sighed internally but then had an idea to salvage this situation somewhat. 

“At least take one for the road?” she asked holding up a slice and the blonde graced her with a tiny smile while accepting the peace offering giving her another look at those strong and calloused hands.

“Have a good night Madam Secretary,” the blonde agent said and looking up at the woman all she could do was nod her thanks.

Watching the woman leave her office she leaned back on her couch and sighed. Maybe it was the stress of the job or the fact that aside from Maggie she’d be by herself since coming to DC, but part of her simply wanted to befriend the blonde agent, why though she wasn’t entirely sure and that part of her was at constant war with the side of her that wanted to seduce the blonde, fuck her and move on like she'd done several times in the past with people she felt attracted too. Unsure of how to tackle this dilemma she called up the one person she could always rely on for advice. Granted it wasn’t always good advice, but he did provide a good sounding board for her and whatever was on her mind. Grabbing her phone, she called up big brother Lex who answered after a few rings and he popped up on her screen in what and what looked like striped pajamas.

“Haven't you heard of timezones Lena?” her slightly grumpy brother grumbled but then grinned at her and she couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“It’s only a one-hour difference, mister I only need four hours asleep a night,” she countered and laughed.

“I only put that in my autobiography to fuck with people and you know it, eight to ten hours of solid sleep a night please, but is everything okay?” he laughed back at her before turning serious and dam his bald head he knew her too well.

“Just trying not make us lose prestige on the world stage you know,” she lamely said, and he didn’t buy it for a second.

“And is there a blonde involved, or maybe a red-head?” he asked with a raise-eyebrow.

“Blonde… but it’s not like that I swear, she’s just a friend or I think she's a friend,” she blurted out and fishing for another slice of pizza because she felt the urge to stress-eat rising.

“A blonde that’s a maybe a friend, that’s a new one for you sis,” he said, and she could see the wheels in that genius bald head of his turning.

“Look I'm trying to go about this the right way for once but It’s like she’s got these walls up and I keep stepping on her toes when it comes to protocol,” she explained and as always eating while on a video call wasn’t the easiest thing to do.

“Protocol, Lena please tell me she’s not a member of your staff,” her brother immediately asked and after all it had been him that had installed the mantra of that you never sleep with the help.

“My security detail… but I swear, again, I’m just trying to be her friend and I’m failing badly,” she mumbled and felt like she was thirteen again admitting to having a crush on the cute new maid.

“Alright give me details and let’s try sort this mess out okay?” he asked and of all the things she missed from her days in LexCorp it was brainstorming with her brother.

“Okay, she’s blonde, has amazing blue eyes, a killer smile she keeps hiding and…” she started but stopped when Lex arched his eyebrow again.

“Ugh….” she groaned before getting back on track. “I keep talking to her and it goes fine until I mess up and overstep some imaginary line which makes her go from friendly to hardcore by the books secret agent,” she explained how she’d been stepping in it with regards to the blonde agent since she met her. 

“Well first stop thinking about how pretty she is and second give it time, sounds like this girl has a few rules of her own in place when it comes to dealing with those she protects and don’t forget you are Secretary of State so she’s probably a bit intimidated,” he advised before stifling a yawn.

“But I keep putting my foot in my mouth with her and it’s annoying,” she said, and she knew she was whining but that was what older siblings were for after all.

“Then act like a Luthor, we don’t like the taste of feet remember,” he laughed, and she felt encouraged by it.

“Luthor’s don’t eat feet, we should put that on the family crest,” she laughed and felt more at ease now.

“Mother would never allow it, but you need to pick a path here sis because it sounds like you are not entirely sure what you want. Do want to befriend her or bone her?” he asked bluntly while cutting to the heart of the matter which caused her to make a face of utter disgust.

“Lex just ewwww,” she exclaimed to which he laughed before giving another long yawn. 

“Just be yourself Lena, but you need to make up your mind about what you want in regards to this mystery blonde. But from what you told me it does sound like you could use a friend out there in the swamp and despite your new fondness or the taste of your own foot she hasn't shut you out yet,” he said giving perhaps the most generic of advice but also speaking truth and she gave him a small thankful smile.

“Will do now get some sleep and I’m going to figure out how to defend our interests in the South China sea,” she said with a sigh and after a quick good night ended the call. 

Pick what you want, sounded easy, but part of being a Luthor was having this strong urge to want it all and to somehow get it all. Though she was sure she could befriend Agent Danvers, the question was would it be enough, and could she even make a dent in those walls the blonde kept throwing up. Before she could further dwell on the Danvers Dilemma her computer pinged putting an end to her internal debate of whether she should bed or befriend Agent Danvers.

* * *

The next day, a Friday, things got even more hectic and but Agent Danvers wasn’t part of her detail either so that meant she was able to avoid an awkward moment after her little protocol faux-pa the night before and not helping matters was Lex’s words still rang in her head that it sounded like she wasn’t entirely sure of what she wanted. Hanging up on the Chinese Ambassador, she leaned back in her chair and groaned loudly when Maggie stepped into her office with a young dark-haired man in tow she hadn’t seen around the floor before. Her Chief of Staff cleared her throat and she collected herself.

“What dire news to you bring me today Mags?” she asked and studied the friendly-looking young man holding a laptop under his arm.

“This is Winn he’s part of our cybersecurity division and well… it’s better if he shows you,” Maggie explained and motioned for the man to go ahead.

“So, once you became interim State-Sec we started monitoring the web for any mentions of you that could raise a red flag or be considered a threat,” Winn explained opening his stickers-covered laptop on her desk.

“I’m aware of what your department does, and I have some background in computing myself believe it or not, what did you turn up?” she asked and felt a headache coming on, this was the last thing she needed on top of everything else.

“I don’t know how to put this, and this is rather delicate which is why I contacted your Chief of Staff and not the DS agents,” he started apologizing and she felt her blood run cold.

“I’m a Luthor, trust me I’m used to being slandered, whatever it is I’m sure it’s not anything I’ve not read in the Daily Planet before,” she said trying to keep her calm.

“Very well…. well as you can see there is some chatter on various let’s call them crackpot online forums... that you were having an affair with Secretary Matthews,” he stammered and brought up excerpts from various forums and blogs that did look and sound like something a crackpot would write.

“And there is more, I’ve got it on good authority that some major news sites are preparing to run this as a story today,” Maggie added as she looked at the laptop in front of her and then back at the pair of them.

This wasn’t totally unexpected, once the political pundits and talking heads of the cable-news networks had recovered from the shock of her appointment and the fact that she had a pair of breasts, they’d started looking into her politics and a certain section of them had not liked what they’d seen, to say the least. Socialist of State was one of the more polite things she’d been called in the past few days and it was no surprise that they'd jump at the opportunity to undermine her like this. There was only one small problem concerning this particular rumor though. 

“Well they’re in for a shock then,” she stated and couldn’t help but laugh a bit at this latest development in her life.

“I’m sorry but I don’t get what’s so funny, we need to get ahead of this LL,” Maggie exclaimed, and she laughed even harder even though Maggie only called her Lena when things were serious.

“Maggie, I am gay! The President knows I’m gay and I’m sure you’ve been aware of it for the past few years too or have you forgotten? For that matter has the media forgotten, because the Metropolis gossip sites ran a story speculating about me once a month at least!” she asked her friend half ranting as Winn looked like his ears were about to burst into flames.

“I know that I was there when you came out! But reminding everyone that you’re gay as a way to dispell this rumor would only make this worse and further distract people from everything we’re trying to do here,” her friend argued and damn it she was right. 

So far, the major media had for the lack of a better term politely ignored her sexual preferences. Partly because since entering public service she’d been very good at making her deeds and her actions do the talking and not her preferred type of sexual partner. The few times it had been brought up she'd dismissed it out of hand and that seemed to have created a deadlock of sorts with most news outlets. None of them wanted to deal with the backlash from attacking her sexuality, not when she was doing good work and in this day and age fewer people cared about it all would seem. Now, this little rumor was putting all that hard work for acceptance at risk and if she came out and said that she was gay to dispel it, it would only bring attention to her personal matters again. Not that she wasn’t used it from her days in Metropolis, but it angered her that after all these years she couldn’t simply say that she was gay without worry.

“So, what you want me to go back into the closet is that it?” she asked out of frustration and immediately regretted it because Maggie understood her better than most.

“I’m the last person that would ask that of you and you know that. Yes, your sexuality shouldn’t even be a factor here, but we need a plan how do shut this down and fast,” her friend argued but gave her a sympathetic look letting her outburst slide and she slumped back into her chair. 

“I have a suggestion, if I may,” Winn interrupted holding up his hand like he was a kid in class waiting for permission to speak.

“Let’s hear it, as long as it doesn’t involve me going out and looking for a suitable beard,” she said and waved for him to go on. Of course, she was being overly dramatic but right now this was royally pissing her off.

“A beard?” he asked and now it was Maggie’s turn to laugh at the man’s naivety while slapping him on the back.

“I’ll explain it to you later Winn, but go on, how do you suggest we dodge this bullet?” her friend asked and the computer geek's eyes lit up.

“We discredit them first, leak your's and ex-Secretary Matthew’s schedules going back as far possible and let them show that you couldn't have been in the same place for anything more than a five-minute chat, let alone an affair. Also, your sexuality is no one’s business but your own and this way it won’t be dragged into this,” Winn suggested and it wasn’t a half-bad idea.

“Think it will work?” she asked Maggie who thought about it for a moment and nodded.

“It’s our best shot, you don’t want yourself dragged through the mud this early in your posting…” her friend conceded, and she gave Winn the nod to go ahead with his plan to discredit the rumors which send him running back for whatever IT dungeon he called home leaving only her and Maggie.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to take it out on you," she apologized to her friend who shook her head and sat down on the corner of her table.

"I understand that you're under a metric fuckton of stress right now LL, but sooner or later this will be an issue you know," her annoyingly observant friend said squeezing her shoulder. 

"Am I hiding who I am?" she asked and looked up at her friend and chief of staff. 

"As your political advisor I'd say that you're doing the right thing but as your friend, I can see this is killing you inside a little bit," Maggie said and she sighed heavily. 

"It's just that I've been out since I was sixteen, in Metropolis it was never an issue and I've been able to deflect it since entering public service, but..." she trailed off not wanting to finish that train of thought. 

"But what happens when you get a girlfriend? Or get seen kissing a certain blonde agent?" Maggie asked and she shook her head laughing.

"Girlfriends are not on the schedule and I only want to try to be Kara's friend," she said and it was Maggie's turn to laugh in disbelieve.

"I'll believe that when I see it Little Luthor and no matter what comes I'm here for you," her friend assured her and she couldn't resist giving them woman an awkward sitting hug while the ex-cop patted her head telling it would all be alright.

The rest of the afternoon was spent staring at her phone’s newsfeed, waiting to see if the story would break or not, Maggie came and went a few times and, in the end, she sent Jess home under duress from her assistant. Sitting alone in the office with only her thoughts to keep her company meant that in the end, the whiskey bottle hidden in the antique globe in the corner came out. One glass, became two, then three and by the time she drained the fourth glass it was late, and it was obvious that the story wasn’t going to break tonight but that she was more than a little drunk.

Getting to her feet somewhat unsteadily she put her laptop away and made her way downstairs. Stumbling through the dark halls of the State Department she surveyed her kingdom and she thought ruefully that she was the gay queen of diplomacy in her empty castle and damn it that she’d not felt like this since she was sixteen. 

It was like her sexuality was being used against her in a new way. Yes, she was not being slandered for being gay, but she couldn’t simply reassert that fact to end this little rumor about an affair with Matthews. If she did go out and simply kissing a girl, it would make things even worse in the press by breaking the delicate truce she had with them. It felt like she the great Lena Luthor could be gay just not too gay. Stumbling out of the elevator and towards the entrance, she met the last person she wanted to see. 

“Madam Secretary?” the voice of Agent Danvers asked when she stepped out onto the street and she groaned, why did have to be the blonde with the pretty blue eyes that she just wanted to be friends with?

“Agent… Danvers,” she said trying not to slur her words too much but failed miserably. Fuck not her, anyone but her! Her mind screamed at her.

“I see, let’s get you home,” the blonde agent said after checking her over and a strong arm wrapped around her waist as she was guided into the back of the black SUV.

“I can walk…” she protested but found herself leaning on the strong woman and god she smelled good.

“I’m sure you can ma’am,” the blonde nodded and helped her into the car before getting behind the wheel. 

Slumped in the backseat of the SUV she groaned again and fumbled for her phone, she had to check the newsfeeds with blurry eyes one more time to be sure that they’d dodged the bullet. Part of her hated that she’d been forced to play political games and the fact that even though her sexuality wasn’t a secret it still left her open to accusations of using her femininity to get ahead in the game, well it weighed on her as things went dark for a moment. 

“Ma’am we’re here,” Agent Danvers said and there was a gentleness to her voice as blue eyes looked at her through the rearview mirror. Hold on, did she fall asleep, was she drooling?

“Thank you, Agent Danvers…” she mumbled and stuffed her phone which lay on her lap back into her pocket before trying to get out of the car.

Before she could leave the car, the agent was there, opening the door to help her out and she could hear the blonde tell the other agent’s that she was going to help Dove, gods she hated that codename, up to her apartment.

“I don’t need your help,” she protested but the woman was practically carrying her into the lobby of her apartment building.

“Maybe you don’t, but if you fall and break something that will be on me,” the blonde countered and pressed the button to call the elevator down.

“I bet this is one of those situations you don’t talk about uh?” she asked in a slurred tone voice and the elevator dinged.

“Yes ma’am,” the blonde agent nodded seemingly unphased and half-carried her into the elevator and pressed the button for her floor which made her feel the woman’s arm brushing against her and it made her shiver.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to be bitchy, but I had a bad day,” she apologized for snipping at the woman as the elevator started going up and the agent’s features softened.

“Those happen, believe me I know,” the blonde said softly and when the elevator opened, she was again being half-carried to her door.

“I need you to open the door ma’am,” the agent said, and she fumbled with her keys but eventually managed to open the door.

“It’s still a mess…” she mumbled at the state of her apartment as the blonde guided her towards the couch in the living room and sat her down.

“I’ll get you some water,” the blonde simply said and vanished into her kitchen as she kicked off her heels and groaned again.

“I’m gay! Just so you know!” she shouted out wanting to reassert herself and her place in the world after the day and night she’d had. 

“I’m aware ma’am, my cousin works for the Daily Planet,” the blonde said bringing her a glass of water and handing it to her while giving her a small glimpse into the woman’s background

“He a former Seal too?” she asked after taking a big sip of the water feeling brave thanks to the alcohol in her system. 

“No ma’am he was an Air Force pilot before becoming a reporter and I should get going,” the blonde said without missing a beat half-turning to leave and she didn’t want to be alone right now.

“Don’t go…. please,” she found herself whispering and the blonde turned back towards her.

“Ma’am, you’re drunk but trust me, you don’t want me to stay,” the blonde said but smiled at her.

“This town sucks, no friends, and no girlfriend only rumors,” she said sulkily and pulled off her jacket before throwing it on the floor. Granted she had Maggie, but she had her partner, and she was drunk and in a bad mood.

“I’ve heard that before ma’am and trust me I know how that feels,” the blonde said and to her surprise sat down on the couch next to her.

“They were trying to start rumors that I slept with Matthews and I can’t go out there and say that I’m gay because it will somehow only make it worse,” she grumbled and stared down at the floor.

“And does being sad about it help?” the blonde asked and rubbed her back in a clear violation of protocol.

“No… but I didn’t enter the service to play politics, I want to do good, not spend my day worrying about if I outmaneuvered some gossip peddler online,” she admitted and looked up at the blonde with a weak smile.

“I enlisted for the same reason, to serve and to do some good I mean, but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad,” the blonde agent said and kept rubbing her back reminding her how long had been since she last had any physical contact.

“I’m sleepy,” she murmured as the blonde smiled at her and like the other night it was bright but clearly held back by something. 

“Here lay down,” the agent said and eased her down on the couch, putting a pillow under her head before she felt a blanket being put over her.

“Thank you… agent…” she mumbled but it ended in a yawn and the blonde tucked her in.

“You’re welcome ma’am and please call me Kara since I’m off duty as of five minutes ago,” the blonde whispered, and she sleepily nodded her head before she drifted off to dreamland.

* * *

The next morning Lena woke up and the first thing she noticed was that she was curled up in a blanket on her couch and second somebody had tidied up her apartment before leaving a note in blocky handwriting on her coffee table. Groaning as the hungover hit her the moment she sat up and closed her green eyes before opening them again slowly. Reaching for the folded note she smiled when she read it out loud.

“Hope you had sweet dreams Madam Secretary. I took out your pizza boxes… drink plenty of water and I’ll see you soon. Kara,” she read out the note and smiled at the winky face that agent had added to the note.

Stumbling to the bathroom she took a handful of Advil and made sure to wash it down with a generous amount of water, soon she was feeling like herself again aside from the realization she’d shouted at the agent that she was gay. Remembering she had the agent’s number she got her phone and texted her without thinking about how many protocols she was violating.

_Thank you for taking care of me last night hope it didn’t get you in trouble?_ she messaged the blonde and her phone vibrated right away.

_You looked like you needed a friend and no I’m not in trouble_ the message from the agent read and she smiled as she decided to pick a path.

_Tell me do secret agents get the weekend off?_ she typed and bit her lower lip thinking what the protocol was for talking to the woman and how she was overstepping it hard right now.

_Special Agent and yep we’re given leave believe it or not_ the blonde wrote back with a winky face and an army man emoji.

_If it’s not breaking protocol could I interest you in a friendly brunch?_she typed and hit send.

_Closer to lunch now, let me finish up my workout and meet me at that pizza place we both love in an hour?_ the reply from the agent read and she smiled.

_Perfect, I’ll meet you there_ she typed back and looked at herself in the mirror deciding that a shower was most definitely in order.

In record time she was looking somewhat human again, pulling her hair up into a tight ponytail she started applying a dark shade of red to her lips before stopping herself.

You want to befriend this woman remember, she reminded herself and granted the blonde was stunning but that annoying logical part of her knew that this wasn’t the time to date having barely dodged her first potential scandal as Secretary of State.

Pulling on a pair of black leggings and comfortable green hoodie she went for high-tops instead of heels and snuck out of her apartment building out the back. Growing up the daughter of a millionaire industrialist she was very adept at avoiding security when she wanted to and she was halfway across town by the time they realized she was gone. It was a pretty petty way to assert herself as her own person and not a public figure, but it made her feel good, plus she didn’t want an audience for her friendly lunch date with Kara Danvers.

When she arrived at the small pizzeria the blonde was already sitting there, right on time, with her blonde hair down and she was reading the menu with those perfect sapphire blue eyes. You want to be her friend! She had to remind herself as the woman was wearing a pair of tight jeans and a black t-shirt with a leather jacket slung over the back of her chair and were those army boots?

“Hi again,” she said sitting down across from the blonde and was met by piercing blue eyes looking up at her.

“Madam Secretary,” the blonde greeted her with a small smile to which she gave herself another mental slap to again remind herself that she wanted to befriend this woman. 

“Kara, since we’re both of the clock can you please call me Lena?” she asked and picked up her menu taking the woman up on her offer to call her Kara from last night while hoping it didn’t overstep one of those hard to spot boundaries that blonde had in place. 

“Very well, Lena, only if you tell me how managed to shake your security detail?” Kara asked looking around and frowning but not at her rather at the fact that her team hadn’t been able to keep up.

“They’ll catch up, and I can be sneaky when I want to be,” she said and smiled winsomely at the frowning woman.

“Your file did say you were smart, so I guess I’ll have to train them harder but we’re off the clock as you said,” the blonde said, shaking her head allowing her rigid professionalism to slip ever so slightly.

They ordered and after getting their drinks she didn’t know what to say if she wanted to flirt with the blonde she’d be in her element, but she really wanted to get to know her so that was off the table, for now. Thankfully the blonde bailed her out and with a question and it was an easy one.

“How is your head?” the blonde asked and wrapped her lips around the straw in her drink and sucked.

“It's not the worst hangover I’ve ever had, I’ll be fine after I eat something,” she answered and there was a kindness to the blonde’s eyes that was undeniable.

“Good, you were a bit of a mess last night and it had me worried,” the blonde said, and she took the chance to ask something she’d been curious about.

"I'm sorry about that but in my defense, it was a trying day yesterday," she apologized and took a long sip of her drink. 

"Don't be sorry, I had days like that when I was deployed, and sometimes you want to crawl into a bottle and forget," the blonde said and she got another little glimpse into the agent's background.

"You didn't strike me as a drinker," she said and the blonde gave an enigmatic look in response. 

"It was a long time ago," the blonde said and she decided not to push her but had to ask something that had been on her mind since last night.

“When I asked you to stay, it wasn’t my proudest moment but why did you say that I shouldn’t want you to stay?” she asked but a waitress arriving to bring them their pizzas meant she had to wait for her answer. 

“I’m can be quite bad at being someone's friend, also trust me in this town you don’t want to be seen fraternizing with your security detail because that’s how rumors start and you were all about trying to avoid those last night,” the blonde admitted the words spilling out of her mouth once the waitress left and damn it she could be adorable too.

“Screw that and this town,” she declared, then covered her mouth when she realized how loud she’d been, and the blonde laughed.

“To screwing… this town I mean,” the blonde declared raising her drink and blushing before catching herself.

“Screw this town!” she laughed and clinked her glass against the blonde agent’s noticing a line of pink lipstick on the brim of it. 

Their lunch was pleasant, and she felt like she could talk to Kara about anything and everything, though the blonde remained reserved especially when it came to her past and relationship with Alex Danvers and thus she didn't push her for details on those fronts. But the woman had a keen mind and her observation skills were top-notch as it turned out that she was a well of information when it came to Capitol Hill gossip.

“I know you said you weren’t good at being someone’s friend, but maybe we could do this again someday soon?” she asked as she paid for their lunch without thinking about it. 

“I…” the blonde started, and she sensed a no coming but then to her surprise the agent changed her mind. “I would like that,” she admitted with a small smile and something inside Lena made her want to work even harder to put cracks the walls the blonde was clearly hiding behind. 

“See that wasn’t so hard,” she said with a smile following the blonde out of the restaurant but came to a stop upon seeing the blonde’s ride. 

“No it wasn't and you’re alright Lena Luthor, crazy for taking this job but you’re alright,” Kara chuckled and swung one long leg over a blue and red motorcycle. 

“You’re not so bad yourself Kara Danvers and of course you ride a motorcycle,” she said without thinking and the blonde pulled on a blue helmet with a red and gold stylized ‘S’ on it with a smirk.

“And if you’re a good Secretary of State maybe I’ll take you for a ride someday,” the blonde fired back at her and revved the engine. 

“Oh, I’ll do my best to be a good girl then,” she was unable to stop herself from flirting and she was pretty damn sure that she was being flirted with.

“I’ll hold you to that, and by the way… I’m bi,” the blonde said giggling at her own obvious pun before speeding off leaving her standing with her mouth slightly open and a box of leftover pizza under her arm. Agent Kara Danvers was full of surprises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those of you that know my works probably know that I suck at slow burns but I'm trying here the best I can :)


	3. The Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena finds out about a bit more about Kara's past during a tight situation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter than usual since work, home life, Thanksgiving coming up, etc, etc are all getting in the way but I wanted to get this scene out, also makes it way easier to edit during my lunch break! Rant in the end notes bewarned!

Being Kara’s friend was easy Lena had decided shortly after their first lunch date, the woman was a great listener and she found herself seeking the woman’s advice more often than not on various topics ranging from where to get the best fast food to the latest gossip on the Hill. Though the agent still wasn’t opening up about her own past, she could be patient and was just happy that she wasn’t lusting after the woman anymore. Alright, that was a lie she lusted after her a little bit, especially after Kara’s flippant declaration of her bisexuality before speeding away following that first lunch date. But cold showers and sheer willpower however helped when those thoughts reared their ugly heads. Now was not the time for complications and she was enjoying having the blonde agent as her friend, so no need to mess that up.

It had been two weeks of political intrigue as the deadline the President had given her to get things in order loomed ever closer and her and her team had managed to get things somewhat in order at the State Department while her and Kara had managed one more lunch date when the agent had been off-duty and also engaged frequent late-night texting as well. It had gotten to the point that even Maggie had eased back on the teasing about how she had the hots for the blonde as it became clear that she was only interested in being Kara’s friend, for the most part. Checking herself in the mirror she fixed her blouse, deciding between one or two buttons undone before butting her jacket and stepping outside into the hallway where her ever-present escort waited for her. 

“Good morning Agent Danvers,” she greeted the black-suited blonde sunnily when she stepped out of her apartment and the blonde nodded.

Kara always stood to attention when in her presence while on duty, her black-suit wrinkle-free and without so much as a spot of lint on it, the white shirt pressed and buttoned, shoes polished to a military shine and the agent’s mass of blonde hair was in its customary braid down her back. Not that she was paying too much attention to how the blonde dressed, she simply appreciated the woman’s attention to detail and there she went sailing down that river in Egypt again in her mind. 

“Madam Secretary, sleep well?” the blonde professionally returned her greeting and fell into step beside her as they headed for the elevators.

“I did thank you and you know that you can call me Lena even when you’re on duty,” she reminded the blonde without thinking and blamed the lack of caffeine in her systems as they stepped into the elevator.

“I know but I won’t,” the blonde replied with a hint of a smile and before she could coax that tiny smile into a bigger one that elevator jerked and came to a sudden and jarring stop.

Before she knew what had happened, she was flat on her back on the floor of the elevator with the blonde agent squarely on top of her, pressing against her while speaking into the cuff of her suit. The lights had gone out and the only illumination was a red emergency light in the ceiling. In the dim light, she could see that the woman’s jaw was set, and her eyes were alert while also feeling what she could only assume to be a very muscular frame pressing against her.

“Bravo team, come in, Delta team come in, Dove secure and requires extraction, repeat Dove secure and requires extraction” the blonde spoke in a crisp voice but clearly got no reply. Again she hated that codename the Diplomatic Service had given her but coming from Kara she didn't mind as much. 

“This is Agent Kara Danvers is anyone out there, we’re stuck in the elevator between the twentieth and nineteenth floor and need extraction now!” she said and again got no reply, but the volume of her voice was rising. 

“It won’t work,” she said quietly and reached out to touch the blonde on the arm to get her attention as the agent lay on top of her protectively which made her flinch.

“The elevator car and the shaft are for all intended purposes a Faraday cage and we’re most likely dealing with a block or city-wide power outage as well,” she explained as the agent looked around at the four walls enclosing them and there was something about her mannerisms that didn’t seem quite right. 

“Kara… look at me,” she said when there was no reply from the blonde and slightly wild-looking blue eyes met hers in the red light. There was something in the blonde’s eyes, fear, panic, worry and she felt like the woman was reaching out to her through those soulful eyes but that was until the blonde realized the overly suggestive position they were in and almost jumped off her. 

“Sorry ma’am,” the agent apologized and got off her before offering a hand to help her get up.

Kara’s grip was strong she couldn't but to notice, and she felt herself being pulled to her feet without so much as a grunt of effort from the blonde. Dusting herself off she looked around the small elevator before checking her phone and finding there was no signal on it proving her faraday cage theory correct.

“What’s the plan?” she asked keeping an eye on the cagey blonde as she went to push the alarm button, but nothing happened.

“Protocol states we sit tight and wait for rescue,” the blonde said eyeing the door and then the ceiling almost in desperation.

“Kara are you alright?” she asked softly and put her hand on the blonde’s shoulder hoping she was conveying warmth and sympathy and that the blonde wouldn’t flinch away from her touch again.

“Tight spaces… aren’t my thing,” the blonde admitted before taking a few shaky breaths and pulling at the collar of her shirt almost like it was suffocation her.

Was this something from the woman’s past she wondered and gently squeezed her shoulder while looking around for a way out. Post-Traumatic Stress-Disorder was a very real thing among people who had served like Kara had and from what Maggia had told her the blonde had done more than her fair share of deployments while enlisted. If the blonde indeed hat PTSD it made the fact that there wasn’t a way out all the more an urgent issue to solve, but since escape-hatches in elevator ceilings were the invention of Hollywood and it wasn’t like they’d be able to get anywhere from the roof of the elevator car anyways they were stuck.

“Hey, I’m here with you and I’m like the third most important person in the country so I’m sure they’ll come for us real quick, okay,” she said trying to put the blonde at ease and was rewarded with a nervous smile.

“Thank… thank you,” the blonde said trying to control her breathing now but with her blue eyes darting all around the elevator and she could see the panic rising in her. What worried her the most was how cagey Kara was becoming in this situation which was a far cry from how composed and in control the blonde always was and making sure Kara was alright took precedence over finding a non-existant escape route.

“Come on sit down with me while we wait,” she said softly, and all put pulled the tall blonde down the floor next to her. 

For a few minutes they sat there in the dim red light with Kara breathing evenly or at least trying to and then she did one of those impulsive things she sometimes did, she reached out and put her arm around the blonde’s shoulder. When the blonde didn’t flinch, she pulled her in closer and the blonde’s breathing calmed down somewhat. Gently holding onto the blonde she again made mental note of how for the lack of a better word, firm, the woman was, she was in no doubt that Kara was in tremendous shape but holding her like this it was like the blonde was made out of steel and not flesh and bone. Get it together Luthor you're trying to comfort her not downloading details for your fantasy archive she chastised herself. 

“Want to tell me about it?” she asked gently and reached out with her free hand without realizing it to hold Kara's.

“It’s stupid,” the blonde said shaking her head and there was a vulnerable tone to her voice she hadn’t heard before but Kara squeezed her hand back.

“Tell me anyway, I can handle stupid, I mean I do on a daily basis,” she countered and that earned her a chuckle from the agent, no correction her friend, and she squeezed back interlacing her fingers with Kara's calloused ones.

“Like yesterday I was dealing with this senator that was holding up a foreign aid package because he didn’t want a solar power plant built in his state because he was worried we’d use up all the sun,” she joked to put the blonde more at ease which caused a giggle before Kara took a deep breath. 

“Be warned then, but here goes... it was during my third deployment, we were in these mountains somewhere clearing out these cave networks,” the blonde started her story while being vague about the details in a way that screamed that what she was telling her about was no doubt highly classified. 

“My team was with me, James, Flash, Oliver and Brainy,” the agent went on and she didn’t interrupt her even though she was dying to know how someone earns the nickname Brainy or Flash for that matter.

“There was this kid, scared and shouting for help, trapped in the back of one of the caves after we had cleared it of hostiles, and I crawled in to get him out…” the blonde stopped and took a deep breath before continuing.

“It was a trap, they’d boobytrapped the entrance and the kid was the bait… there was an explosion and then it felt like half the mountain was falling down on me,” the blonde went on shaking slightly at the memories she was reliving.

“Seventy-two hours… Lena... it took them to dig me out… the kid was hurt in the blast, we both were but he ended up not making it… but the base doctors patched me up and I was back on duty within two months” the shaking blonde finished her story and she wrapped both her arms around the woman to hug her.

“Oh Kara, darling, tight spaces and you not getting along is an understatement,” she stated sweetly gently rocking the woman now as the pain in the blonde's voice stung at her heart. 

“Yeah, and ever since then enclosed spaces and the piece of titanium in my leg on a cold day always remind me of that day and... fuck... I’ve never told anyone but my therapist about that before now,” Kara admitted carefully almost tenderly hugging her back like she was afraid she'd break or vanish.

“I’ll be your secret keeper then, it’s what… it’s what friends do right?” she asked and felt the blonde giving a grateful nod against her shoulder.

“Yeah friends... fuck... I wish I knew where the damn cavalry was,” the blonde whispered looking up and hiding a sniffle but failing at it.

“They’ll come don’t worry, tell me something more or is it my turn?” she asked and kept her arms around the shaken but more calm blonde.

“Your turn,” the blonde said almost perkily, and she smiled at her thinking about something that she hadn’t told the woman already.

“I’m adopted too, but nobody knows that outside my family, but it’s super messy because of dad… he had an affair and I was the result, so it's like a Luthor but not,” she said laying out one of the darkest Luthor secrets.

“I didn’t even find out until I was eighteen, my mom won’t talk about it all and dad’s no help either,” she went on and felt Kara rocking her gently this time around.

“Lex, my brother but you probably know who he is, tried to dig stuff up for me after I bugged him for about a year but couldn’t find anything either and every trail has been a cold one so far,” she sighed and felt Kara resting her chin against the top of her head.

“And yeah, I don’t like enclosed spaces much either I’m a big skies kind of girl really,” she added with a whisper looking up at the blonde who smiled at her and gods it was a brilliant and bright smile this time. Not a smirk or a hint of a smile but something that rivaled looking into the sun it made her want almost but not quite, never want to leave this place where they could just be themselves.

“Well... us adopted kids, we gotta stick together right?” the blonde asked softly with her sapphire eyes full of emotion, at that point something in her broke and being friends with Kara Danvers no longer felt like it would ever be enough.

"Kara..." she started but stopped as the blonde just smiled at her with that million mega-watt smile of hers that she'd only now discovered the woman possessed and it shut her up instantly.

"Maybe... uhh maybe... we can take a ride... like under that big sky someday... I promised you a ride if you were a good Secretary of State and I know this place in Kansas, trust me you'll love it and you've been doing so good in your job and gosh you're really quite amazing and it's the least I could do thank you for listening to me and holding me and oh we need to get pizza once we're out here my treat if you let me and..." Kara started speaking haltingly before then babbling and she noticed how close they were, how nice the blonde smelled, how strong her arms were, those sparkling blue eyes like twin sapphires, and how soft and inviting her pink lips looked all of which created an effect on her which made it near impossible for her to form words lets alone sentences.

Before she could speak a word or further act on the newfound revelations she'd just had about Kara Danvers and her feelings for her, wait feelings she thought, a loud creaking noise from above interrupted their little moment in the dim light, followed by a helmeted fireman sticking his head through the crack in the elevator doors above their head and the frantic shouting of Maggie asking if she was alright down there. With people around Kara snapped back to her professional demeanor and despite her protests, she felt herself being lifted up towards the waiting hands of the firemen who had forced the doors open. It would be two days until she met the blonde agent again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild rant time, but the shows fifth season has been getting me down and I can't just get over how poorly  
written it is at times, especially in regards to Lena. 
> 
> This is somewhat effecting my writing enthusiasm too but I suspect I kind of burned myself out on the last story I wrote as well because I was unloading several years of built up story ideas into it and hadn't written anything for almost ten years before then
> 
> I love this idea of mine and it's been with me a while but I'm struggling a bit with how to hammer it into a choesive story or maybe I'm taking fan fiction way too seriously.
> 
> Also adult problems but finding time to write and not to mention edit and proof read stories is simply way harder then it was for me when I didn't have all these pesky responsibilities
> 
> Alright rant over and thanks for reading


	4. Complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara's been ignoring Lena for the past two days and with some liquid courage our hero reaches out to her special agent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did a sneaky little edit after some very good feedback from itsboattimes

“Thank you, ambassador, I’m glad we could sort this out without anyone losing face,” Lena said with her best fake smile on her lips as she was talking to the Japanese ambassador via a late-night video call after a slight diplomatic hic-up had almost turned into an international incident.

It had all been because of some stupid and drunk Japanese diplomat grabbing an intern’s ass and it was at moments like these that she felt less like a diplomat and more like a fixer that makes embarrassing situations go away. Her first reaction had been to have the Diplomatic Service haul him to the nearest police station or have him brought straight to her, but that would have upset the trade talks currently deadlocked between the two nations and then the intern had threatened to go public which made things worse. 

“But…” she said with her voice turning deadly serious. “If that diplomat is ever assigned to a US embassy again or if I hear that he got off with a slap on the wrist it will not end well, do you understand me?” she asked and the now nervous-looking ambassador nodded on her screen.

“Glad we understand each other, good night,” she said cheerfully and hung up on the ambassador and leaned back in her chair with a loud groan. Sometimes she hated this job and the compromises she had to make for the sake of good relations with the nation’s allies. 

Looking around she realized that she was alone in her office again, Maggie was out with her girlfriend, Jess had left an hour ago and she’d not seen Kara Danvers in two days since their little bonding session in the elevator. 

Glancing down at her phone she saw the time which made her groan again and it was a good thing she didn’t need more than four hours of sleep a night, unlike big brother Lex the perpetual sleepyhead and habitual napper. Not that sleep had been easy to come by as of late since Kara had been on her mind non-stop, but her friend had gone silent though and then there was that nagging feeling in her heart that being friends with the blonde would never be enough even if she got back in touch.

Pushing away from the ornate desk she sauntered, phone in hand, over to the liquor cabinet hidden inside an antique globe. Popping it open she picked up a half-empty bottle of scotch and held it up to her eye. Pouring herself a glass she plonked herself down on the couch and sipped the bittersweet liquid while looking at her phone. 

“Kara Danvers, you’ll be the death of me,” she muttered to herself re-reading their last text exchanges and shaking her head.

She swirled the amber liquid in the glass before taking a long sip from it as she thought about that moment in the elevator, well one of those moments. In particular, the one with Kara on top of her, those blue eyes wild, protecting her even though she was scared out of her mind and then how the blonde had jumped off her when she realized their position. 

“Why won’t you let me in?” she asked the phone and drained her glass of the remaining scotch in it when the phone didn’t answer.

It would be so easy, she knew that much, she could easily look up Kara’s file, find out everything about the former Navy Captain and find some answers as to why the blonde was the way she was, but that wasn’t who she was, not anymore. All she knew was that the blonde had been injured at least once maybe more than that in the line of duty and it had left scars. Careful soldiers don’t get medals after all. Holy hell though, buried in the darkness for three days and the blonde still went back to serving, the woman had plenty of heart that was for sure.

Typing out a long message about how she missed the blonde’s company and advice she then deleted it because it was a lie or at least not the whole truth. She missed both those things for sure and could do with some of that sage advice especially after today’s events but in reality, she wanted to type out something much more emotional and potentially lewd. 

Further driving her to the brink of utter frustration was the fact that for the past two days a conflict had raged inside her between the warring sides of her mind. One was her emotional side that wanted to go out right now find the blonde and hold her and the other was her cold and calculative side, reminding her that she was Secretary of State and whatever she chose to do reflected not only on her but the office and the country itself on the world stage. 

“Ugh, when did this relationship stuff become so hard,” she declared in frustration as she reached for the bottle of very expensive scotch, a gift from the Foreign Minister of the United Kingdom, to refill her glass. 

After another glass the amber liquid she was feeling braver than before since there was nothing like some liquid courage when it came to matters of the heart. So, again the phone was in her hand and this time the message was short and sweet. _We need to meet, please_. Pouring herself a third glass she took a big gulp of said liquid courage and hit send. After staring at her phone waiting for Kara to reply she sighed, drained her glass and got to her feet a bit unsteadily. Grabbing her bag after stuffing her laptop into it she strode down the empty halls of the State Department with her heels clicking on the marble floors and stopped at the portrait of Madeleine Albright who had been Secretary of State under Clinton. That particular recent history nugget made her think that even if Kara would want to meet and even, gods willing if they’d enter into some kind of relationship, would she be remembered like President Clinton once it all came out? Kara wasn’t an intern in any sense of the word, but the power imbalance between was vast, nonetheless. 

“Stupid brain, stupid conscience, stupid impulsive texting,” she muttered and saluted her predecessor before heading home for the night hoping that Kara wouldn’t be on duty when she got downstairs to the waiting black SUV yet at the same time praying for the blonde agent to be present. 

Of course, the blonde wasn’t part of her detail tonight and most likely, even though she didn't want to think about it, the protocol focused ex-Seal had probably requested a transfer out of her detail the moment she’d gotten out of the elevator they’d been stuck in together. Checking her phone one more time she saw that the blonde hadn’t replied and now she worried that she might never see her again. Irrational, of course, melodramatic, yes but she had never been someone who had many friends and the thought of losing Kara as one of those rare people hurt. 

Once she was home the buzz of the scotch had somewhat worn off as she kicked off her heels and had just taken her jacket off when there was a firm and loud knock at her door. Carefully opening the door, she found herself face to face with Kara Danvers, the blonde had her hair down and was wearing her trademark black suit, but the jacket was unbuttoned, and the top button of her shirt was undone. Lena froze and she found herself unable to speak as the blonde agent looked like a woman on a mission with her signature white earpiece dangling from the collar of her shirt meaning that she was either off-duty or at least that she didn’t want to be reached. 

“Why did you have to say please?” the blonde asked in a quiet voice without so much as a hello with her blue eyes shimmering as they drilled into hers and it made her stomach do several flips from the intensity in the blonde's look.

“I… you… want to... come in?” she stammered unable to process what was happening but was cut off when the blonde pressed a finger against her lips shushing her.

“No, I’m going to talk and you’re going to listen then I’m leaving. Madam Secretary… Lena… whatever this is between us… it can’t happen. Not because it’s wrong or immoral but because it will ruin you,” the blonde said firmly, and she felt a shiver run down her spine as she swore that she felt a spark fly between her lips and the blonde's finger.

“Oh, and what is this thing between us?” she asked curiously almost shyly while regaining some of her composure and after the blonde’s take charge tone had thrown her for a loop. The scotch from earlier and the slightly disheveled look Kara was sporting didn’t help matters either.

“I don’t know what it is, it hurts my head to think about it, but whatever it is it can’t happen,” the blonde stated seemingly not feeling that spark she'd felt, but she could see the conflicting emotions dancing across her face.

“I’m going to need a way better reason than that Kara and I think you know damn well what it is that is going on between us,” she retorted defiantly and looked up at the tall blonde agent with fire in her green eyes.

“How about that fact that I’m a soldier with too many scars on both my body and my mind and I’m not worth all the complications that come with me,” the blonde pleaded with her giving her a brief glimpse behind the walls she hid behind.

“I disagree strongly there, and didn’t you know that chicks dig scars? Plus if you didn’t want my attention why did you tell me you were bi, hell why did you agree to that lunch date?” she asked and put her hand on Kara’s right arm feeling it flexing in response to her touch. 

“I was being stupid alright! I thought I could have some fun for once but in no possible scenario does this work out well for you,” the blonde almost shouted back at her trying to make her point.

“Maybe you don’t understand because you’ve not been in this town long enough or you’re being your wonderfully politically naïve self but whatever we might have is not worth it and I’m not worth it… I’ve done things… the press would latch onto it the moment they found out we were… datin… doing stuff!” the blonde then blurted out clearly frustrated and stumbling over her words. 

But she did understand, she understood perfectly, their whatever they were feeling had the chance to ruin them both. For her, it was a potential scandal and for Kara, it could spell the end of her career. The agent was trying to spare them both potential heartache and grief but damn it they deserved a chance at happiness didn't they and what harm could it do? They could be sneaky, she tried to reason with herself.

“Kara, I think you’re worth it and those things you did, well you did them in service to this country, so how about you give me a real reason for why you’re so scared uh?” she said earnestly as she challenged the blonde agent in what was not her most diplomatic approach but she had to break through that wall the woman hid behind all the time. Careful there Luthor you're going down a path that might not end well here, the voice of reason in her mind chastised her but she ignored it.

Being accused of being scared made Kara freeze up for a moment and there was a silence between them as they stared each other down. Though she wished she’d kept her heels on, so she didn’t have to look up at the blonde all the time because it made it hard to project resolve. Then when she raised her eyebrow to challenge the blonde to say something more, the agent took one step into her apartment and thoroughly shocked her with her next move. 

“You…” the blonde hissed and moving fast pinned her against the wall with strong hands grasping onto her shoulders. “...are too important, you have a real chance to change things Lena but having me around would jeopardize all that, can't you see that?” the blonde begged her having sorted out her thoughts. 

“In the Navy, in the Seals, I thought I could change things and help people. But no matter how many bad guys I put down, how many enemies I killed nothing changed. But you, you are in a real position of power, you can make things better and do real good, that’s why I’m ending whatever this is before my past deeds have a chance to tarnish you,” the agent tried to explain herself further before she even got a chance to speak. 

“That’s not your choice to make alone Kara and whatever those deeds maybe have been they don’t change who you are as a person. I don't care about what you did, I care about who you are,” she said as she remained calm as the blonde agent repeated herself and then she noticed that the blonde was now in her apartment.

“Why are you so gosh-darn nice to me…” the blonde trailed off as the grip on her shoulders loosened and she could finally see the girl behind those walls of steel. 

“I already told you because I think you’re worth it but so nice of you to finally come in,” she answered the blonde’s question in a slightly flirty tone of voice even as she was pinned against the wall or maybe because of that. Reasoning with herself that she wasn't Clinton and that this wasn't anything like that whole thing.

“I’m trying to be serious here so don’t flirt with me… please,” Kara whispered the conflicting emotions in the woman’s voice obvious and she felt the hands on her shoulders squeezing almost massaging her. 

"I know and it's admirable what you are doing, but I don't need saving Agent Danvers," she replied softly letting her mask slip, this was stupid, this was reckless but damn it she wanted it. 

"It's kind of my job to save you and for the record, this is a bad idea and I tried to stay away, but..." the agent started and she finished the sentence for her.

"But you couldn't get it out of your head?" she asked hopefully, while internally praying she wasn't reading this all wrong.

"Yeah and for the record again, I… love it… when you flirt, it makes my day when you do it even when I’m on duty,” the agent admitted blushing for the first time since she’d met the woman as Kara still wavered between steely resolve and shy adorableness. 

“Tell me, do you like it when I call you Agent Danvers or should I call you Captain Danvers?” she asked with a raised eyebrow and a smirk as she made no effort to escape from the wall the blonde had her pinned against

“Lena… I haven’t been called that in a long time… and you’re cheating… this was supposed to be my big unselfish moment... but I want this too,” the blonde whispered her steely resolve having faded away completely.

“Well do something about it then and be selfish, oh Captain, my Captain,” she teased the blonde even harder while looking up at her and gave a small salute which was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“Oh, fuck it all to hell!” the blonde cursed like a sailor before crushing those soft and pink lips against hers and she allowed herself to melt into the kiss as they both recklessly gave into days of built-up tension for better or worse. 

Pulling the blonde closer she felt those strong hands roaming over her back as they made out in the entryway to her apartment. Unable to resist she grabbed the blonde’s ass through the coarse material of her black suit while pressing herself tightly against that muscular body hidden underneath it. The blonde groaned into the kiss followed by the agent's tongue invading her mouth and her heart was pounding when the blonde claimed her mouth. Then to make things worse or maybe better Kara started pulling her blouse up out of her skirt before pushing her hands under it and she moaned at the feeling of skin against skin while digging her fingers into the flesh of the blonde's firm ass. Soon they were grinding against each other but before she could somehow pull the woman towards the living room and the couch the blonde forcefully pulled away from her when a burst of static came from her dangling earpiece. Like that it was all over way too quickly as the blonde looked like a deer caught in the headlights. 

“I’m sorry… ma’am… fuck… I have to go… before I’m missed...” the blonde blurted out before turning on her heel and bolting for the elevator and when it didn’t come fast enough the blonde all but dived into the stairwell and out of sight. 

Lena wanted to run after the blonde, but her feet didn’t seem to be obeying her at that moment and instead, she brought her shaking fingers up to her warm and wet lips. Well shit, this complicates things she thought to herself as she put a hand over her pounding heart. Had she been impulsive, yes, was this going to come back to haunt her, maybe but she'd seen the real Kara Danvers at last and oh Captain, my Captain indeed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still hate season five the power of a billion exploding suns, but I've found my groove with writing again by simply chilling out a bit and no obsessing about delivering epic-length chapters every time. Last chapter's rant came about from a horrible work/life balance that was eating into my writing time among other things, but I remembered that this is supposed to be fun so I decided to focus on that. 
> 
> As always I do suck at slow-burns but I'm trying my hardest here, I'm trying to have the "real" Kara shine through a bit, she's still a bubbly girl underneath her trauma and training and Lena has to coax her out a bit more. 
> 
> I'm also trying not to get overly political with this, but the temptation is strong to go full liberal on this bitch sort to speak. Anyways happy Thanksgiving to those in the USA that read enjoy your Turkey Day!


	5. Captain Danvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena's is at risk thanks to the rumor about her and her predecessor gaining some traction online and it shows her a side of Kara she didn't expect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Post-Thanksgiving Treat for you all so enjoy"

Maggie was talking to her as they were walking from the State Department to a nearby diner for lunch, but Lena didn’t hear a word of what her friend and chief of staff was saying. Yes, they were heading for a naval stand-off with the Russians in the Pacific Ocean and the President was politely demanding a solution before things would escalate. Yet it somehow, maybe selfishly, paled in comparison to the fact that last night she’d made probably the biggest mistake of her professional life while also taking the biggest leap of faith of her private life at the same time when she’d goaded Kara into kissing her. 

“Lena! Are you even listening to me?” her friend demanded while stopping her by holding out an arm which she walked right into with a grunt.

“Yes, now after lunch you discreetly contact the Russian Ambassador, remind him that we helped him extract that asset of theirs in India last month and also remind him how it would be horrible if that came out with elections around the corner and his party struggling to hold onto votes,” she said absentmindedly while glancing back at her security detail and not seeing Kara.

“Ruthless! I like it and yeah your blonde won't be on your security detail today no matter how often you sneakily check,” her friend whispered to her with a grin and she wanted to groan.

“Shouldn’t have told you about that and she’s not my blonde,” she hissed back while glaring at her friend, but of course she had told Maggie what had happened the night before who else could she have told, Lex would have teased her and reminded her that sleeping with the help was never a good idea and Jess wasn’t that kind of friend yet. 

“Still can’t believe that she came to your apartment like that!” Maggie laughed and before she could punch her friend in the shoulder in a petty act of revenge a black SUV pulled up to the curb next to them with a loud screech.

“What… Maggie?” she shouted in protest as a familiar pair of hands pulled her into the SUV while Maggie was hustled into another car by her security detail.

“Please keep your head down ma’am and don’t worry your friend is safe,” Kara said, and the SUV sped away as she felt herself being held down against the seat by the blonde agent.

“Ka… Agent Danvers, what’s going on?” she asked with her voice half-muffled by the leather seat as she tried to look up but again Kara pushed her down. It was her first time seeing the blonde since the night before and it was a bit of a shock that it would happen like this. 

“A credible threat against you was detected, so we’re taking you to a safe house,” Kara answered, and she could see and hear that the agent was tense and alert.

“Credible threat?” she asked like an idiot and felt the blood draining from her face as her mind raced at the implications of that.

“Don’t worry I’ll look after you,” the blonde assured her with her professional mask slipping ever so slightly, and she believed her right up until a loud bang blew out the car's tires and they were sent crashing into a nearby building.

When she came to her ears were ringing and she could faintly make out Kara shouting something into her radio. Then came the gunfire and Kara dove on top of her as the bullets ricocheted against the car's armored body. After what felt like an eternity the gunfire stopped and Kara was again shouting into her radio that she needed back-up right now. 

“Stay down ma’am and don’t move! Jackson guard her while I take care of the gunmen,” the blonde ordered her and the agent that had been riding shotgun with them, she then kicked the door open with one swift kick and drew both her guns as she stepped out of the car.

It was like the world slowed down around her, she heard Kara shouting orders about someone on their six and nine followed by more gunfire. Peeking out through the car’s window she saw the blonde firing at a window of a nearby building and despite the seriousness of the situation she had to admit the woman looked like a goddess. Well, like an angry war goddess as she barked orders as SWAT teams arrived and then she vanished inside the building with one of them. More gunfire followed as a black-clad figure with a ski mask on came flying out the first story window and landed with a thud on the ground. Obeying the agent’s orders, she stayed put for the most part but she did crawl forward to check on their driver who was slumped over the steering wheel and she breathed a sigh of relief when she felt for a pulse and found it. 

“Stay down mam,” the agent that Kara had left in charge ordered her and she curled up behind the passenger seat but had the wherewithal to get out her phone. 

As luck would have it this was DC and a news crew was seemingly always nearby which allow her to quickly find a live feed from the scene she was in the middle of. On her phone, she could see that a gun battle was raging in the nearby building which Kara had entered and another body came flying from a second-story window this time landing with a crash on the fire escape outside it. 

“Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay,” she whispered while clutching her phone between her fingers catching a glimpse of Kara through the broken window. 

Peering down at the screen of her phone she could make out what she assumed were flashes of gunfire through the windows and she could only imagine what was going on inside, but it seemed like Kara was at the forefront of whatever was going on. Was this the soldier that the blonde had once been coming to the fore and if so, it was both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. 

A few tense minutes marked by intermittent gunfire from inside the building followed before the camera zoomed in on Kara emerging from the building, limping slightly but dragging a masked man behind her while holding a sniper rifle in her other hand. Throwing both at the waiting Police officers it felt weird getting a bird’s eye view of what was going on right outside and then the car door opened again and she heard a labored voice speaking to her.

“Madam Secretary come with me,” it was Kara holding out her hand, the blonde's face was covered in what looked like soot and her suit was torn in a few places. 

Wordlessly she took the blonde’s hand and allowed herself to be escorted to a waiting car which took her to the safe house and at no point did Kara leave her side. It wasn’t until an hour or so later when they were alone in the bedroom of a sparsely furnished apartment somewhere outside of DC that she could begin to process what had happened. The other agents had tried to take Kara away to be checked by doctors but the blonde had insisted that she needed to finish the mission and in the end, she’d stepped in to assure the other agents that she’d take care of the stubborn blonde if they left her in her care. But before she could turn her attentions to her savior's well-being her phone had rung and it was one of those calls you had to take. 

“I’m fine Mister President, sorry John and don't worry my security team did a great job,” she said half-way through her debrief with the President when she noticed Kara almost deflate in front of her eyes.

“My staff will handle the Russian situation until I get the all-clear and… I need to go John, can you please tell Chief of Staff Danvers that her sister is fine and a hero in my book,” she said and hung up the President to check up on Kara who now sat half slumped in a nearby chair.

“Hey there, are you okay?” she asked kneeling down beside the blonde who looked downright exhausted.

“Did… you just hang up on the President of the United States?” the blonde asked with a shocked look on her face.

“Well you are more important right now, here let me help you out of that so I can take a look at you,” she answered and smiled at the blonde before helping her out of her jacket. 

Kara wordlessly but with a grateful look in her blue eyes allowed her to strip her of the black and gunpowder smelling jacket that had at least two worrying looking holes in it and leaving the blonde in her white and sweat-soaked shirt with her to shoulder holster on. Having worked in research and development for LexCorp when they’d done work for the Metropolis Police Department, she was familiar with these types of holsters, so she started taking those off too in an effort make the blonde more comfortable.

“Ah hero uh?” the blonde asked with a rueful smile while she carefully undid the straps holding the holster in place. 

“Yeah, you kind of are but I didn’t get the chance to ask but who were those people?” she asked carefully pulling the holster of the agent as carefully she could mindful of the now spent guns in it.

“They were a far-right cell though calling a bunch of incels a terrorist cell would be giving them too much credit, but it seems like they somehow got a hold of that information your friend Winn suppressed a while back and they were going to make a statement by taking out the Lesbian of State,” the blonde explained to her what had happened as she lowered the holster to the floor.

“And instead you took them out,” she said not sure why Kara doing that for her made her feel happy in a guilty way, and the blonde gave a grim smile but then winced when she tried to chuckle.

“They were scared kids, barely knew which end of the guns they had was which,” the blonde admitted with her face darkening both from pain and what she assumed were some bad memories as a tiny red patch started forming on her the sleeve of her shirt.

"You're bleeding!" she exclaimed and tried to take a look at the blonde's arm but Kara tried to pull away."I've had worse it will be fine," the blonde protested but she was having none of it.

“Can I get some ice-packs and a medkit in here please?” she called out to the agents standing guard outside the bedroom door, and her request was promptly answered.

“You don’t have to…” the blonde protested again but she shushed her and started unbuttoning the woman’s shirt when they were alone again.

“Yes I do, don’t worry I took pre-med when I was fifteen,” she assured the blonde and to her credit, her fingers didn’t shake when she unbuttoned the shirt.

“You really are some kind of super-genius, aren’t you?” the agent asked, and she bit her lip while nodding her head. 

“Kinda, but I don’t like to brag about it… too much,” she admitted focusing on not having her fingers shake as she went for the buttons of Kara’s shirt. 

Pulling the shirt of the blonde agent followed by a kevlar vest to reveal a white sports bra she could see that Kara had the beginnings of what would be a nasty bruise by tomorrow on her shoulder and a small scratch on her right bicep from where a bullet had grazed her. But that was not all she saw, the woman’s tan skin was like a roadmap of scars, some big and some small and thankfully most of them looked long since healed and faded but it looked like she’d been through the wars. That was before she could process the sight of Kara's well-defined and muscular abs, shoulders and arms.

“Not pretty I know,” the blonde grunted but made no effort to cover herself up though she could see the woman’s abdominal muscles tensing up.

“No, I think it is very pretty in a way and it shows how strong you are,” she said without thinking while opening up the medkit to clean up the cut on the blonde’s bicep and Kara didn’t even flinch when she rubbed it carefully with an antiseptic wipe while keeping her eyes firmly on the task at hand and failing miserably.

“You’re too fucking nice ma’am, but please stop trying to be coy and just look already if you’re going to,” the blonde then told her and with a cute little grin clearly trying not to laugh. 

First cleaning up the cut on Kara’s arm before putting a gauze-patch over it she then allowed herself to take in Kara’s exposed chest and torso. Once she got over how toned and muscular the blonde was she noticed the first scar from what looked like a bullet wound on her right side about an inch below her ribcage and she brushed her fingers over it curiously. It looked like the bullet had gone clean through and she wondered how it had happened. While both of them remained silent she brought her fingers up to another more jagged looking scar from what appeared to have been a knife wound on Kara’s left collarbone and whoever had stitched it up hadn’t done a very good job of it and with Kara’s blue eyes following her she traced her fingers along the jagged white line. 

“Do they hurt?” she asked looking into the blonde’s eyes who in return shook her head. 

“Only when it’s cold and damp outside,” Kara answered, and she kept tracing her fingers over the blonde’s skin. 

There were smaller scars, discolored little lines from various scrapes and bumps, but what made her gasp were the three angry-looking rounded scars on the blonde’s back above her right shoulder blade she saw when checking the bruise there for soreness. 

“What…” she stammered and brushed her fingers over the three white bumps on Kara's tan skin and she had to ask what had happened since those were also definitely old bullet wounds.

“What happened? Well, a purple heart followed by a medical discharge happened,” the blonde said trying to deflect the question and she let it slide for now. 

“How many of those do you have? Purple Hearts I mean?” she asked instead while getting a cold pack and pressing it against the agent’s bruised shoulder. 

“Three… I still can’t believe you hung up on the Commander in Chief, and Alex is going to be so mad at you for that but luckily for you, she will be even madder at me,” the blonde answered and gave a relieved sigh at the cold pack being pressed against her skin.

Oh, crap she thought to herself once Kara mentioned her sister because, in the whirlwind that had been the last few days, she’d maybe not forgotten but definitely not thought about the fact that Alex Danvers, the President’s Chief of Staff was Kara’s adopted sister. 

“Well you’re my… thing or at least I assume so after last night,” she admitted brushing past the latest complication in her life and realized they’d not really talked about what happened the night before when the blonde had rushed away.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about last night… I snuck away from monitor duty in the van to see you and when my radio went off I kinda panicked plus you’re a really good kisser which made my brain go all funny,” the blonde admitted shyly and blushed a bit.

“Did you… break protocol for me Agent Danvers?” she asked in mock astonishment and the blonde laughed before clutching her ribs

“Please… I’m too bruised to be teased or flirted with right now,” the blonde begged with a van little smile.

Smirking at that statement she took the blonde’s face in gently in her hands as she knelt in front of her and she planted a long and slow kiss on her pink lips, tasting what she assumed was sweat mixed with gunpowder residue before pulling back to see a goofily smiling Kara Danvers.

“What was that?” the banged-up and bruised agent asked sounding almost confused at what had just happened.

“That was for saving my life, and there will be other rewards once you’re fit enough,” she said and winked at the blonde who looked like a deer caught in the headlights at that statement.

“So, we’re doing this uh?” the blonde asked sounding almost shocked at what she was hearing almost like she was expecting her to call it all off.

“Let me see, first, you try to be the unselfish hero by warning me away from you, which by the way, never works because it makes you out to be a badass with a heart of gold. Secondly, you go all Girl-Rambo on a bunch of domestic terrorists and trust me I know that what you did earlier wasn't standard procedure so you can bet your ass we’re doing this, Captain Danvers,” she stated firmly and no way was the blonde wriggling out of this.

“That said, Captain Kara Danvers, I would very much like to date you… please?” she asked standing up with the stunned blonde looking up at her wide-eyed.

“Is… is that an order ma’am?” the blonde asked her, and she just laughed holding out her hands. 

“If it makes you say yes, then yes it is, now let me help you into that bed over there since you need the rest more than I do,” she said, and the blonde took her hands with a bright smile. 

Hauling the blonde to her feet took much more effort than she’d anticipated but she managed to half carry her to the nearby bed and lay her down. It was while sitting on the bed looking down at the woman that the reality set in of what they were doing and what she’d just said or actually ordered, and it made her stomach clench.

“It… it wasn’t an order and it's totally up to you if you date me,” she said softly, and the blonde flashed a sad little smile at her because they were both messes and they knew it.

“Look… I know this all kinds of messed-up what we’re doing or not doing here, and if you want to stop then…” the blonde started and for a moment stopping sounded like the right move.

“No!” she said a bit too loudly. “I don’t want to stop, look this is weird and stupid but after today I don’t want to stop but I don't want you to feel like you have to do things because I order you to,” she said a bit more quietly.

“It could end us, both of us,” Kara reminded her solemnly and the agent was of course right.

“I won’t let it,” she declared and there was her Luthor egomania shining through bright as the sun she realized. How could she stop someone from finding out about them if she couldn't even keep the rumors about her and Matthews under wraps? 

“You know I do believe you when you say that. And I think you could do anything you set your mind too, but if yesterday’s kiss was all that this is, well then I’d understand since we both choose to serve something larger when we took these jobs,” the blonde said again showing how she ready to sacrifice herself for the greater good. 

Kara was right, painfully right, last night had been weeks of built-up tension being unleashed, and she still wanted this job, warts and all. Because despite all the diplomatic wrangling behind the scenes she was doing actual good as well and was she right to jeopardize all that for something undefined and maybe even fleeting. 

“You got your thinking face on,” Kara said with a smile and reached up to touch her cheek with a calloused hand.

“Kara, what are we doing… can you tell me because I have no idea,” she admitted and it was her turn to slump down, there had been an attempt on her life in part because of her sexuality and here she was nursing her illicit crush with two agents standing guard outside.

“I… I don’t know, I tried to stay away from you, I tried so hard but then you said please and that morning when we were stuck in the elevator I was so scared but then you were there with me...” the blonde said softly before simply trailing off.

“I would have been there for you no matter what this thing is between us, you are my friend first and foremost!” she said right away and then groaned at how hard this was, why couldn’t she have just stayed friends with the blonde agent. It wasn’t her place to risk the woman’s career for the sake of easing her loneliness and then there was the big gay elephant in the room to deal with. 

"We're kind of beyond being friends now though, so how do we hide that fact? Do we even want to?" Kara asked with a thoughtful look on her face and again the blonde hit the nail on the head.

“I don’t want to hide and fuck I’m such a hypocrite. I gave this big speech about being gay when that rumor about me and Matthews almost leaked and here I am sneaking around, kissing you like some love-struck teenager that’s half in the closet…” she exclaimed in frustration and tried to get up to pace around but Kara pulled her back down, damn the girl was strong.

“Lena, stop!” Kara ordered her in a tone befitting of a drill sergeant and she felt her eyes go wide in shock, but she did stop talking.

“For the record, I kissed you first, I came to your doorstep and despite all my resolve, I couldn’t keep it together when face to face with you,” the blonde said firmly. 

“Still feels like my fault somehow maybe I was tipsy, I was lonely, horny or desperate for a shred of affection, take your pick,” she said quietly and unable to help herself she reached out to touch Kara’s hair.

“As I see it, we didn’t ask for any of this to happen and trust me when I tell you that all my training is screaming at me to stay the fuck away from you… but I can’t, you’re trouble Lena, but as you can see I kind of like trouble,” the blonde admitted glancing down at her multitude of faded scars.

“I’m going to kiss you again, right now, is that okay?” she asked after staring at the blonde following the confession that the ex-soldier was just as conflicted as she was, and Kara gave a quick little nod.

Slowly she bent down over the woman and kissed her, it wasn’t a hungry or an urgent kiss though more like a kiss that promised more to come later. This moment wouldn’t last and once the all-clear would be given she’d be under heavy guard for a while which would mean this might be her last opportunity to kiss Kara for a long time, maybe forever. Because what they had was so fragile and potentially so fleeting that it made her heartache thinking about it, but that was a problem for tomorrow and instead she allowed herself to be swept away by adrenaline and the taste of Kara's lips. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boom! Was this cheesy? yes! Do I love melodrama? Hell yes! I guess this is a slow-burn by my standards and I'm taking some creative licenses with the fallout from the attack on Lena here for the sake of the romance story. But as you can hopefully see they both are very confused about what's going on between them and keep trying to be painfully noble about it and failing horribly.
> 
> Since this end note has become my soapbox I want to thank those who commented last time for their kind words and I tried to take their comments to heart here, also this chapter might be sappily influenced by all the turkey in my system at the time of its writing but it's my little story and if I want Kara to go all Rambo so Lena can patch her up afterward then she's going to do just that. I hope I didn't overdo it with her scars, but even a super-power free Kara strikes me as a person who'd put herself on the line again and again to save others and have scars from those encounters.


	6. The Stand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> European tour time for our Secretary of State and there have been a few changes since we saw her in the last chapter also it's time for Kara to be a bit of a goofball before they clash on the fact that Lena kind of is the boss here.

Lena splashed water on her face and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, wearing her pajamas which consisted of an old white tank top and worn black shorts, she was staying in a hotel suite in Paris on the first stop of her European Tour and the tours' mission was two-fold. First and foremost, get the latest round of climate talks back on track while in Paris and second put on a show of strength after the assassination attempt that Kara and her team had thwarted two weeks ago. 

Since the attack’s aftermath, where she’d learned a bit more about Kara and her rather violent past, they’d barely met. Conflicting schedules and scrutiny not allowing for their usual lunch dates and in all honesty the attack been a wake-up call for her. 

You see, it’s funny how an attempt on your life makes you take a look at said life, she realized that she’d been playing things fast and loose with Kara and both their careers, the open flirting had been a bit much even for her and after taking stock of the hidden liquor cabinet in her office she’s found most of the bottles there either half empty or totally empty. Thus a few changes had been implemented, Jess had removed every drop of alcohol from her office and she’d redoubled her efforts on the job at hand. 

On the few occasions she met with Kara while the agent was on duty, they’d been formal and cordial, no flirting and no looks but simply Secretary of State and the chief of her security detail. Their texting had stopped too, that had been on Maggie’s suggestion and even though their phones were encrypted, her friend and chief of staff had rather bluntly informed her about the optics of it all being potentially bad given how she’d gotten the job of Secretary of State, to begin with. The attack had been, needless to say, a wake-up call for everyone in her inner circle.

But she hated it and had racked her brain about how to have her cake and eat it too, she couldn’t give up this job, she had too much to prove as the first openly out person to ever hold it and it wasn’t fair for her to ask Kara to give up a career the blonde clearly enjoyed and excelled at given that she’d taken down the group that had tried to assassinate her almost single-handedly. So, as things stood right now there was an unspoken agreement between the two to cool things down a little bit. 

“And you’re still a mess Luthor,” she said to her reflection and scrubbed her make-up off fully before checking for grey hairs which had started to show up as of late with alarming frequency thanks to the stress of current events.

Her phone vibrated before she could fret over the few strands of grey in her raven-black hair she spotted already, and it was Lex. Her brother had been checking up on her more often following the attempt on her life and it was nice of him but also a bit annoying. 

“Shouldn’t you be in a board meeting or something?” she asked picking up the phone and was rewarded by the chuckling of her big brother.

“Shouldn’t you be at the Eiffel Tower with your blonde bodyguard? Saw the news stories finally and I can see why you like her,” her brother fired back, and she wanted to punch him through the phone.

“Lex, you’re the one who told me never to sleep with the help remember and also to figure out what I want. Well, what I want is to put things on hold with Kara for the time being,” she said, and it was amazing how good she was getting at lying to both government officials, her brother and herself.

“Fine, fine how are things going in regard to staying away from the scotch?” he asked next and she could always count on Lex to be blunt and to the point.

“Two weeks and not a drop, thanks for asking,” she said and wandered out of the bathroom and threw herself on the bed.

“Stress can do that to you, we both saw what it did to dad during the crash of 2000 and 2007,” he said, and she found herself scrolling through old messages from Kara while talking to him.

“Hope I didn’t get that bad! And I know I sound like a broken record, but I had no idea how overwhelmed I was by everything going on, but I don’t want to talk about it so distract me with something please. How are things going in back in good ol’Metropolis?” she asked wanting to change the topic away from her troubles to some mindless talk of home.

“Well mom actually bragged about you the other day and dad is dad, what more do you want to know?” he asked with a laugh.

“You still dating that girl, what’s her face?” she asked since Lex played up his bachelor image it was hard to keep track of his ever-changing girlfriends.

“What’s her face has a name you know and yes still dating Lucy thanks for asking, you know me, I love a girl in uniform! Guess it must run in the family, uh?” he teased her, and she groaned.

“Ugh! Doing the right thing sucks and I have no idea what Kara looks like in uniform,” she declared and looked up news stories from after the attack that praised Kara Danvers for her heroic actions. 

“Look sometimes doing the right thing means making the difficult choice, but this posting of yours isn’t forever and what you told me about Kara she strikes me as the kind of woman who has honor and no small amount of patience,” he tried to reassure her that Kara would wait for her if she wanted too.

“But we didn’t even agree on what we had, hell it never even started,” she muttered and Lex, even though he could be an annoying big brother, was good for pouring her heart out to.

“Be patient Lena, you don’t need to live your life at lightspeed and if this thing with this Kara girl is meant to be it will work itself out,” he assured her, and she laughed at him.

“If I didn’t know that you are the most cynical man on the planet, I would have almost believed you there,” she laughed at him and he chuckled at her.

Before her brother could drop some more pearls of wisdom on her, she heard a knock, but it didn't come from the door to her room where two agents were stationed outside. No, the sound was coming from somewhere inside her room at a steady rhythm. After almost making her ears twitch trying to pick up the direction of the sound, another series knock came and she rolled off the bed and started following it.

“Lex I’ll call you back okay, give my best to mom and dad okay?” she asked and before her brother could say anything she hung up.

After some inspection she discovered that the knocking was coming from the door that connected her suite to the one next to it and there was a pattern to do it. Long short long, short long, short long short, short long and she grinned because someone was tapping Kara on the door in Morse code and she carefully cracked the door open to be met with a blue eye peeking through the crack. 

“What are you doing here?” she whispered finding herself smiling at the blonde agent while keeping the door from opening too far. 

“I don’t have long, but I wanted to say hi, so uuhhh hi!” the blonde whispered as she opened the door a little bit more to see that the blonde’s usually tight braid was a bit frazzled with hair sticking out every which way. 

“Hi back at you but what are you doing here?” she asked and in return Kara smiled at her, it was that beaming looking into the sun smile that the blonde seemed to keep in reserve most of the time but when she broke it out the words oh boy didn’t begin to cover it.

“Well… I kind of missed you a bit more than a lot, was pacing around for like an hour pulling at my hair before I knocked,” the blonde admitted while reaching her hand out through the crack in the door which she took and squeezed.

“I missed you too, are you okay, all healed up?” she asked, and the blonde nodded her head with a smile while rubbing a thumb along the back of her hand. 

“You patched me up good ma’am, did a much better job than Flash did back in the day,” Kara laughed and one day she’d have to meet these former compatriots of her girlfriend. Or was she her crush? A close friend or just a friend? Putting a label on Kara Danvers right now was kind of hard.

“I know things are a mess right but maybe one day we can talk properly about those days?” she asked shyly, and Kara nodded her head.

“One day ma’am, and may I say gosh you’re pretty even in pajamas,” the blonde agent gushed softly, and that little ray of hope was something she latched onto.

“Thank you, but before we talk more about that I need to get something off my chest. So… I recently realized that I’ve not been on my best behavior since we met, too much scotch and not enough restraint. So if I, in any way put you in a bad or uncomfortable position through my actions I hope you won’t hold that against me,” she said shyly before launching into her much practiced apology speech and looked down at her feet.

“Wow!” the blonde said with a loud breath with a smile before putting her mind at ease.

“All I said was that you were pretty, but remember I carried you home ma’am after those hard nights and please don’t beat yourself up about what you did or said. The job you have would get to even the best of us and for the record, if I hadn’t wanted your attention you would have never gotten me to sit down for that pizza slice,” the blonde told her and squeezed her hand. 

“Good, I mean thank you and what happened to Lena?” she asked shyly and bit her lower lip looking back up at the blonde.

“I wasn’t sure we were going back to that yet,” the blonde admitted blushing slightly and it was adorable

“Yet?” she asked hopefully, and the blonde smiled at her pulling her half-way into the next door.

“I finish what I start ma’am, I said yes to that date and I assume the offer didn’t have a time limit on it?” the blonde asked, and she felt her heart rate pick up.

“It’s an open-ended offer yes,” she said her mouth going dry since she was after all in her pajamas, which Kara thought were cute while the blonde herself was in her standard-issue black-suit and the plan was to cool things down. 

“Noted ma’am, do I have permission to kiss the Secretary of State in her pajamas?” the blonde asked, and she nodded her head eagerly. A bit of warming up to keep things interesting wouldn’t be the worst of ideas, she reasoned with herself. 

“Permission granted Captain,” she said fighting back a giggle and Kara leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. 

It wasn’t as hungry or desperate as their kiss in her apartment nor did it have the sad finality of their kiss in the safe house, this was a kiss promising that one day they’d get to have some semblance of a normal relationship. Putting her hand behind Kara’s head she pulled her close and tried to drink in as much of the blonde as she could while Kara held her hand. Pulling apart they smiled at each other and Kara’s eyes lit up when she seemed to remember something.

“Oh, before I go, I got you this!” the blonde whispered and pulled out a small replica of the Eiffel Tower that lit up when you turned it on. 

“You… are the silliest but goodness I love it,” she laughed, took the offered trinket, and hugged it to her chest.

“Well… we are in Paris, right?” the blonde asked, then looked behind her when there was the sound of footsteps nearby, but they faded and they both let out a breath she didn’t know they’d been holding.

“You do know that tomorrow we’re seeing it right?” she asked and laughed nervously at almost being caught.

“I know, but this way we get to share it,” the blonde said, and she felt her insides go a bit gooey at how sweet the hard-bitten agent could be.

“I’m going to kiss you again for that,” she giggled and gave the blonde a peck on the lips before there was another sound of heavy footsteps nearby.

“Right, okay go before you’re missed, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she urged her and gave her a quick good-bye kiss on the cheek before closing the door and laughing she looked at the tiny sparkling Eiffel Tower in her hand.

Getting into bed she put the trinket on the nightstand and lay back on the pillows with a sigh, things were still a mess but would probably always be as long as she remained Secretary of State but at least Kara hadn’t given up on her. It was good to know that the blonde agent thought she was cute and maybe tomorrow she’d figure out how to share a bit of Paris with the blonde on the down-low.

* * *

The next day she was on a whirlwind tour of Paris, posing for pictures at various landmarks, visiting a university to give a speech in her somewhat accented French and at least it gave her and Kara a chance to see Paris, though the agent was always about ten feet behind her with her beautiful blue eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, her soft blonde hair in a tight braid and a stoic expression on her face. 

During a pause in the tour when there was wrangling going on between her staff and their French counterparts about the best location for a photo-op and a short speech near the Eiffel tower. She looked up seeing the Eiffel Tower, then Kara standing guard not far from her and she had an idea. Reaching into her red Chanel bag she found her phone and walked up to the agent.

“Take a quick picture for me, Agent Danvers, while they haggle?” she asked the blonde who raised an eyebrow behind her sunglasses but obliged her taking her phone and snapping a picture of her. 

“Ever been to Paris before?” she asked like she was making small talk and the agent shook her head but cracked a tiny smile at what she was doing.

“Want a quick picture?” she offered while holding out her hand, it was really quite the nice view of the famous tower, but the blonde shook her head.

“Come on, I’ll make it a good one,” she promised, trying her own version of the million-watt smile Kara sometimes flashed her and the blonde actually relented with a sigh and a shake of her head. So, Kara handed the phone back to her before taking up a position with the tower in the background. 

“Smile,” she urged her, and the blonde pulled her sunglasses down and flashed her a quick smile before returning to her neutral professional expression.

“Perfect, I’ll send it to you later,” she promised, and the blonde merely nodded and pushed her sunglasses back up her cute nose. It wasn’t anything untoward they were doing, just the young and hip Secretary of State having some fun with her security detail, but it did give her a chance to share this moment with Kara however indirectly. 

Before they could get the tour going again a loud bang sent her security detail scrambling, however, with Kara diving on top of her with such amazing speed that it didn’t register that the blonde had moved until she was covering her with her tall frame. 

“Dove secure, give me a sit-rep!” the blonde shouted already having drawn her weapon as the other agents surrounded them.

“Backfiring vehicle,” one of the agents shouted also with his weapon drawn and she looked around at the assembled press and frightened civilians.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she protested and tried to get up but like before Kara wasn’t having any of it. 

“Ma’am, I recommend that we return to the hotel and…” Kara started but she pushed against the blonde and gave her a firm look.

“Your protest has been noted agent Danvers, but we’re not giving in to panic and fear here,” she said and rose up to her full height before brushing down her dress.

“At least let us clear the area of onlookers then ma’am,” Kara argued as a small crowd had already gathered due to the commotion. 

“That won’t be necessary either Agent Danvers,” she said firmly and for the first time pulling rank on the blonde agent. 

“Le… Ma’am...” Kara whispered holding onto her arm, but she flashed the blonde a quick smile to hopefully put her at ease.

“Trust me,” she mouthed at the agent and took up position in front of the press with the Eiffel Tower behind her as Kara gave a quick nod but she could see that the woman wasn’t a fan of this move she was pulling.

“Now if we’re all done being excited how about we get this show back on the road?” she asked the gathered media and onlookers as Kara and another agent took up positions to her left and right.

“This tower wasn’t always beloved, in fact when it was built, many voiced their displeasure with it and didn’t think it was feasible, but it has endured much like our democracies have endured despite the struggles of our times,” she started her speech but went off script a bit with Maggie glaring at her with her what the fuck are you doing Luthor look.

“Just as over a hundred years ago some didn’t consider this great monument to be feasible, and likewise today many like to think that the climate accords I’m here to negotiate with our friends and allies aren’t feasible,” she went on and swept her hand towards the tower.

“It’s easy to be afraid, to resist change or to simply run away,” she said and glanced at Kara who stood alert and ready nearby if the blonde was upset with her, she didn’t show it.

“But we neither of our great nations run away, especially when faced with dire situations we stand and we fight,” she said directing her words towards the small crowd that had gathered behind the press.

“To our friends, I say... don’t be afraid for we will always stand with you,” she said slipping into her slightly accent French before smiling.

“And to those who would do us harm know that we stand unmoving against you as this great tower has stood for over a hundred years,” she finished her little off-script speech as the reporters pushed forward to both take her pictures and ask her questions.

After that little adventure they did head back to the hotel where she’d barely been able to kick off her heels before the phone rang. Seeing the name on her screen she gulped a bit and answered it.

“Please hold for the President,” a voice on the other end said while she sat down on her bed and picked up the little Eiffel Tower that Kara had given the night before.

“Good morning sir,” she said checking the clock and doing a quick mental calculation of what time it was in DC.

“Afternoon Lena, that was an interesting speech you gave earlier,” President Jones said in his measured and deep voice, but she got the feeling he wasn’t happy with her.

“It was a spur of the moment I admit, but nothing I said contradicts our foreign policy,” she said while keeping her tone even and diplomatic.

“I’ll give you this, you do know how to turn a situation to your advantage, but declaring that we stand with our friends like that might not go over well on the Hill,” the President laughed before his voice turned serious.

“Do we not stand with our friends in time of crisis then?” she asked and felt her by now familiar frustration with politics bubbling to the surface.

“We do of course, but these sort of declarations might come back to bite us later down the line,” he replied and if he was upset with her he didn’t show it just like Kara had been stone-faced on the ride back to the hotel.

“Sir, for centuries we’ve stood as a bulwark against tyranny and terror, so unless that’s changed I don’t see how anyone on the Hill could possibly spin this in a negative light,” she protested and realized she was being a bit naive but she still believed that damn it.

“Your heart is in the right place, Lena, but at some point, you have to play the game, I think what you did was brave and this call is only to warn you about the potential fallout,” President Jones assured her. 

“Thank you, sir, if there is any fallout from my statement, I will deal with it,” she said firmly and squeezed the little trinket Kara had given her.

“I have faith in you Lena and remember it’s John,” he said, and she found herself smiling despite what had been if not a dressing down at least a stern warning.

“Force of habit, thank you… John,” she said and with a quick offer of good luck from the President the phone call was over. 

Then she had an idea, she rolled out of bed and went back to the door which she’d talked to Kara through the night before because she felt like she owed the agent an apology. Tapping out her name with a quick mental thank you to the Girl Scouts of America, she waited for a reply which for a while didn’t come. Finally, a series of knocks signaled that Kara was on the other side and she cracked the door open seeing a rather serious looking blonde on the other side.

"Uhh hi," she said trying to be cute like Kara had been last night but the agent wasn't haven't any of it today.

“Don't hi me ma'am, you take too many risks,” the blonde whispered and seemed tense which wasn’t all that surprising given how their day had gone so far.

“I know, but I wanted to clear the air after today,” she whispered back through the crack in the door.

“Nothing to clear ma’am, you gave an order, I followed it,” the blonde said stiffly but played with the long braid she kept her blonde hair in most of the time.

“But you weren’t happy about it,” she countered, and the blonde frowned at her with her nose wrinkling up.

“Oh, on a professional level, I wasn’t happy about it at all, but on a personal level... well I guess I got to learn to live with things like this since we're planning on being together... one way or the other,” the blonde replied and crossed her arms over her chest, defiant but also giving her hope.

“Oh…” she exclaimed with her eyes widening at the blonde’s statement this was a new wrinkle to their already wrinkly not quite relationship.

“Then I’m sorry, but I have to stand my ground, or they won’t respect me,” she said reaching out to touch the blonde on the arm.

“I get that, but that doesn’t mean I like you in danger any less, both personally and professionally,” the blonde said her voice softening somewhat.

“Mad me?” she asked shyly which earned a shake of the head from the blonde followed by a flash of a smile.

“A little, but don’t worry it will pass, I'm used to the chain of command,” Kara assured her and in what was perhaps one of the cuter things she’d done so far, the blonde kissed her on the forehead.

“Good, I…” she wanted to say so many things but there was a knock at the door by the agents standing guard outside and by the time she looked back Kara was gone, and the door was closed. Well maybe they’d be able to talk more during their next stop of her European tour and steal a few more precious moments.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we go, pumping the breaks a little bit while acknowledging that Lena has been maybe working too much and drinking a wee bit too much after hours in the story so far. These next few chapters might turn into a tour of all the places I've been in Europe but hey it makes for great scenery for them to do cute stuff against. I'll try to keep writing over the coming Christmas Holidays but man things might slow down for me on the writing font again, but don't worry this story will be finished sooner or later, I'm stubborn like that.
> 
> Also it's been weird that a lot of the stuff in Season five that I've been seeing or being reported as about to go downm mirrors some of the ideas that I used for my other story "Hope and Willpower" (check it out it's kinda good I've been told) guess hack writers think alike or steal from the same comic book source material or something. Still hate the show, still love you guys and I will see you next time!


	7. Holding Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next stop of Lena's tour of Europe and she finally manages to get some alone time with Kara while also getting to learn more about the former Seals past from a couple of her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas guys, I wasn't sure I'd get another chapter out this year, but here we are. This will most likely be the last update of 2019 from me since as I've moaned about before the Holidays don't lend themselves to writing in my case.
> 
> I've upped the rating as well, so be warned things might get steamy

Switzerland, more precisely, the city of Geneva, was the next stop on Lena's tour of Europe. This stop was overtly so she could take part in a conference to celebrate the Geneva Convention's anniversary but more importantly, she'd been sneakily hosting meetings with various dignitaries while here about how to better enforce the treaty. 

Sitting on the bed of her latest hotel room, she had her laptop open with soft music playing and papers were strewn all over the bed as she chewed on her pen thoughtfully. Sadly, this room didn’t have a handy backdoor so no more sneaky visits from Kara were possible this time around. 

On her nightstand was the Eiffel Tower souvenir Kara had given her in Paris and she glanced it every now and again with a sad smile. Again, her interactions with the agent had become purely professional and she still wasn’t sure if she was forgiven yet for her little stunt in Paris, but the more she thought about it the more pissed off she got for some reason. Who was Kara Danvers to tell her what to do when the agent had run off to take out her attackers in DC while getting injured in the process? 

Having had nearly three days to think about how the blonde had been hurt and all those scars on her body had also put things into something of a perspective for her when it came to the blonde agent. Kara had said that she wasn’t someone that anyone would want to have around when they first met and that made her think about what else then scars did the blonde have to hide. There was Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder there too, which she had seen but also how could she know if she was the only girl in the blonde’s life, she had no way to tell since Kara played things like that very close to the chest. 

“Get a grip Luthor! You're acting like a teenager,” she half-growled to herself and threw the pen on the pile of papers in front of her.

It didn’t help matters that the backlash from her statement at the Eiffel Tower had started the very next day back at home with the media, the social media and the odious talking heads all either accusing her of overstepping the bounds of her office, dictating policy and even preparing for a Senate run once her posting ended or all of the above. Finding herself needing a distraction, she picked up her phone where she found the picture she took of Kara in Paris and it made her smile and then frown. The blond agent caused such conflict in both her heart and her head that is made her want to scream sometimes. Glancing at the mini-bar she shook her head firmly, that was the easy way out she reminded herself and tried to get back to work.

Later, she was feeling like she was going cross-eyed as she read over the accords one more time and she ran her hands through her hair in frustration before rolling off the bed. Outside was picturesque, with snow on the mountains and the moon was rising above them. Gods, she wanted to howl at it, or dance, or go see a movie, anything but being stuck in here alone with only the agents posted outside for company. For someone in her position, she realized that she found herself alone quite often with Maggie was always catching up with her partner during downtime, Jess was of course back in Washington and Lex was several time zones away and it also drove home the fact that her political climb had left her with precious few friends to call on. 

But she could still have fun damn it she decided and diving for her suitcase, well one of several suitcases, she pulled out a pair of black jeans, a warm jacket, some cute boots, and a tight white top. Time to go explore the nightlife or at least explore it as well as one could with a security detail trailing you. Stripping naked in front of the mirror she studied herself, touching her smooth skin where she remembered Kara’s scars being and despite her reservations about the blonde, something about Kara Danvers, scars on her body and soul and all, called out to her. Maybe it was her Nightgale complex or her white knight complex but she wanted to be with Kara and make it all better, somehow.

Pulling her jeans up and slipping the top on she shrugged on the jacket and posed for her own amusement while thinking that it was too bad Kara Danvers wouldn’t get to see this outfit. Because she would have loved to see the blonde’s reaction to it. Quickly touching up her make-up she put on her boots and knocked on the door to alert the agents on guard about the change of plans for the evening.

“Boys, we’re going for a walk,” she told them, and the two burly looking men in matching suits exchanged looks then spoke into their radios quickly and nodded. 

The hotel was in a fairly central location which meant that she soon found herself on a street full of bars and cafes and she could say this about her security detail they knew how to stay out of sight and almost out of mind when the situation called for it.

Finding a nice cafe where a cute blonde girl with a guitar was playing cover songs and the atmosphere seemed casual, she took a seat in the back after she ordered a hot chocolate which she nursed along with a giant chocolate chip cookie. It was not exactly her idea of painting the town red but it sure as hell beat the alternative of slowly losing her mind in her hotel room.

Then she walked in and fuck why did she have to walk into this place of all the bars and cafes on in the city. It was Kara fucking Danvers, accompanied by a tall black man carrying a camera and another younger looking man who had brown hair and eyes that kept darting around the place. Lena’s first instinct was to hide, which was stupid, while her second instinct was hoping that Kara wouldn’t notice her but the blonde never missed anything and waved at her and all she could do was lamely wave back as the trio walked up to the counter to place their order

Sipping her hot chocolate, she prayed for the earth to open up and swallow her whole at that moment since she couldn’t leave because that would look stupid and she couldn’t approach Kara because that would look wildly out of place. Glancing towards Kara where she was placing her order, she could see that the blonde agent was wearing jeans and a white turtleneck sweater with her often present leather jacket on over it and then fate, or more likely the crowded cafe intervened. Trying not to panic even though she almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Kara approaching her table with her friends in tow. 

“Mind if we sit with you, ma’am? This place is sort of full,” the blonde asked sounding totally neutral and she dumbly nodded her head as the trio took their seats around her with Kara planting herself firmly next to her.

“What brings you out K... Agent Danvers?” she asked stopping herself from saying Kara’s name and giving a paranoid glance at her security detail stationed nearby.

“Meeting some friends that are in town ma'am, this is Flash, sorry Barry and the one fiddling with his camera is James,” the blonde introduced her friends and a lightbulb went off in her head.

“You served with Kara, didn’t you?” she asked them without thinking about and then gave the blonde a sheepish look for her outburst. Yeah, you suck at being sneaky Luthor, the annoying voice in her head that sounded like her mother mocked her.

“Yes ma’am, I did three tours with the Girl of Steel herself here,” James, the taller of the two and who was playing with his camera declared.

“Two tours, stitched her up one time too, she had a knack for getting into trouble,” Barry or as Kara affectionately called him Flash laughed and nudged the blonde in the shoulder.

“I saw the result from those stitches and let me tell you…” she started about to give the man a piece of her mind before quieting down when both men laughed, and Kara only gave a good-natured smile.

“Ma’am, calm down, they know that we’re friends and your detail doesn’t eavesdrop,” the blonde told her, and her eyes went wide. What did they know? What had Kara been telling her friends about her, about them and why friends? She’d thought they were way beyond friends by now.

“Yeah, Kara told us you stitched her up after that attack in DC and I must say I didn’t know the Secretary of State had a nursing degree,” James laughed saving her from the embarrassing moment she’d found herself in and she smiled at Kara’s companions who both seemed to be the friendly type.

“Well, she didn’t want to leave her post,” she said and sipped her chocolate giving Kara her best doe-eyed look partly to challenge the blonde’s declaration of friendship.

“That’s just like in that village, oh what was it called, she stayed on guard the entire night sometimes, told us to sleep in shifts,” Barry asked snapping his fingers trying to remember the name.

“Wazakhwa,” Kara said without missing a beat and she felt the blonde taking her hand under the table and she gave it a reassuring squeeze. Guess I’m out of the doghouse at least, she thought to herself. No wait, you're mad at her, remember? Stay mad, oh, but she so strong her internal dialogue was cut off when Barry laughed, however.

“That’s the one! Though James here relieved her eventually though she went kicking and screaming to her bunk,” the excitable young man laughed and slapped his friend on the back.

“So James, I guess you’re here to report on the conference?” she asked James guessing from his camera that he was a journalist of some kind.

“Oh no, I’m just a photographer, here for the mountains and the snow,” the man laughed and snapped a quick picture of her and Kara which made the blonde glared at him.

“You’re not just a photographer James, ignore him ma'am because he’s underselling how good as always and you should see some of his pictures,” Kara cut in giving James a firm look but then smiled at him.

“And you?” she asked Barry as she felt the blonde rubbing a thumb along the back of her hand under the table which made a swarm of butterflies appear in her stomach. 

“I'm here to conduct some global warming studies for Star Labs, we’re conducting tests up in the mountains, measuring glaciers and how they’re shrinking,” Barry said as a waitress brought the drinks for Kara and her friends which gave her a few moments to quiz the blonde agent.

“What did you tell them?” she whispered quickly to Kara while the boys were distracted by the admittedly cute waitress.

“Feisty aren’t we, don’t worry nothing that will get us in trouble,” the blonde whispered back squeezing her hand one more time. 

“Okay, but by the way, we need to talk later and…” she stopped when the waitress left and turned her attention back to Kara’s friends.

“We interrupting anything?” James asked with a wide grin and she shook her head while hoping she didn’t look like a deer caught in the headlights. 

“Leave her alone James, she’s had a stressful couple of days,” Kara jumped to her rescue with a quick conversation change. 

“Because of the speech you gave in Paris, right?” Barry asked while devouring a platter of cookies before at the same time with crumbs flying everywhere and she solemnly nodded.

“IIt was a good speech ma'am, but yeah I can see how the folks in Washington would hate it,” James agreed, and she felt Kara, proudly maybe, squeeze her hand again.

“It’s ruffling some feathers but can we not talk politics, please? Maybe instead, tell me more about the Girl of Steel here?” she begged off any more talk about her work and in fact she was much more interested in hearing about Kara’s past from reliable sources. 

A few more hot chocolates and a giant platter of cookies later, the stories were flowing from both James and Barry about how it had been like to serve with Kara during her time in the Seals and it was interesting, to say the least.

“...so Kara picks me up and hurls me over this wall shouting that for someone nicknamed the Flash I can be too freaking slow!” Barry laughed finishing a story about how they had been caught in an ambush during their second tour together.

“We were being shot at!” Kara protested while grinning from ear to ear and the entire time she’d not let go of her hand under the table.

“Oh, oh I’ve got a better one, remember when Kara had those kids following her around when we were stationed in that village?” James asked and that made her ears perk up for some reason.

“Yes, the boys in the village had never seen a female soldier before or a blonde for that matter,” Barry laughed, and she glanced at Kara who for once looked slightly uncomfortable.

“And the girls looked at her like she was some sort of superhero too, especially after she…” Barry started but Kara cut him off.

“Barry, please any story but that, it’s embarrassing,” the blonde begged but she squeezed Kara's hand to try to indicate that it was alright, and the blonde agent relented and waved for her friend to go on with his story.

“Which part is embarrassing, the part where you led the girls in a soccer match against the boys and beat them or that time you scared one of the older boys half to death when he made one of the girls cry?” Barry asked with a wide grin on her face and she looked at Kara in amazement.

“Both…” the blonde groaned and took a long sip of her hot chocolate while looking like she wanted to vanish into the cup.

“I think it’s… admirable,” she said, wanting to say that she thought it was freaking adorable and kind of hot, but Kara had an image she liked to maintain, and they were in public after all.

“Oh, and it got her chewed out by the higher-ups for excessive fraternizing with the locals to boot,” James chimed in saluting Kara with his cup.

“Hold on, Captain Kara Girl of Steel Danvers… went against protocol?” she said in mock surprise and that earned her an even louder groan from the blonde agent.

“Oh yes, Kara and protocol have a long and storied history,” Barry said and Kara shoot daggers at the man over the rim of her mug.

“Well so do I, so here is to protocol and to breaking it,” she declared holding up her mug for a toast and for a moment it looked like Kara was about to break into one of her beaming million-megawatt smiles but it ended up being only a smirk.

“You heard the Secretary of State boys, here is to breaking protocol,” the blonde declared as they all laughed and toasted.

After a were a few more stories about Kara and followed by stories about Barry and James from the blonde, where she found out that James was almost as suicidally heroic as Kara while Barry reportedly once outran a drone strike to save a group of civilians thus earning his nickname of Flash. But their evening was winding down and the Flash, however energetic, was yawning theatrically after the last of the stories while staring into his empty mug. 

“Sorry sugar crash and jet lag are hitting me hard,” Barry apologized while stifling a yawn but also nudging James in the side with an obviously conspiratorial look on his face.

“Yeah, I got to get these photos uploaded too, you two going to be alright?” James asked them and she knew she was being set up by someone here but in the end, really didn’t care since it meant alone time with Kara.

“Of course, you get some rest Flash, you too James and I’ll escort the Secretary back to her hotel,” Karat told her friends and it was a testament to the men’s character that no comments were made about that particular plan.

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Barry declared giving the blonde a quick salute and then turning to her and doing the same.

“Madam Secretary it's been a pleasure,” the young man said, and she gave him a Boy Scout salute in return.

“James,” she nodded to the photographer who gave her a quick salute which she also returned

“Ma’am,” he said and gave her a knowing look, somehow, he knew what was going on between Kara and her, she was sure of it.

Watching as Kara fiercely hugged her two friends goodbye and then with her detail keeping a respectful distance she strolled back to her hotel. The blonde agent was again being very professional while walking beside her as they were both mindful of their audience and this was already a bit beyond the norm. 

“This isn’t… breaking any rules is it?” she whispered while leaning in closer to the blonde agent as they walked.

“No ma’am, and for the record, our friendship is common knowledge among my friends and those I trust in the service,” Kara said but she was smiling slightly and Lena got a distinct feeling that the blonde had maybe set things up so they'd be almost alone for a little while.

“Well, I’m still a bit mad at you,” she said allowing her fingers to casually brush against Kara’s as they walked. 

“And what did I do to earn your ire ma’am?” the blonde asked but there was that ghost of a smile that showed that she wasn’t being too serious.

Deciding how to best play this out she pretended to be interested in something in a nearby store window so that the security detail would give them a bit more space. While she tanked the heavens above for men, even secret agents, being uncomfortable around women shopping for shoes or lingerie or clothes. 

“I’ve been playing that scene when we were attacked in DC over and over again in my head and what you did was… brave but also incredibly reckless,” she said quietly while looking at the window display but mostly at Kara’s reflection.

“They were trying to kill you, I couldn’t…” Kara started protesting with her voice rising a bit before she got it back under control. “I couldn’t let them get away with that,” the blonde finished in a whisper.

That stopped her dead in her tracks, as any arguments she might have had, died on her lips at the raw emotion shown by the blonde’s sudden outburst and she felt herself shivering. Looking around she spotted a small bookstore that was still open and pulled the blonde quickly into the store.

Inside the store, only a sleepy-looking old man sat behind a counter and she was still shivering which Kara took in a wrong, but a very welcoming way and two strong arms wrapped around her to shield from the non-existent cold.

“Thank you, but I’m not cold,” she said softly but let her arms wrap around the blonde’s waist nonetheless, they were alone, well almost, with the security detail staying outside the store keeping guard and probably assuming that Kara herself was enough protection for her. 

“I know, wanted to hug you,” the blonde admitted, and she found herself looking up into those deep blue eyes. 

“You… care about me that much... as a friend?” she asked a bit unsure of herself and the blonde merely nodded.

“I care about you a lot, like a lot and I thought we agreed we were way beyond friends,” Kara admitted, and she found herself grinning like a goof at that statement.

“A lot, uh? What brought you to that conclusion if I may ask? And ditto,” she giggled snuggling closer into the blonde’s tall frame stealing these few precious moments alone with her guardian.

“Well after Paris, I was kinda mad you, but to borrow your words, what you did was brave if reckless and I respect that,” the blonde explained and she wanted to let out a squeal of pure joy.

“I know this is stupid and we don’t have long in here but do you think… well do you think you can sneak into my hotel room later?” she whispered while her hands roamed up and down Kara’s back.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea… ma…” Kara started but before the blonde could say ma’am one more time, she kissed her hard which definitely woke up the sleepy owner of the bookstore who politely vanished into the back.

You’re being stupid Luthor, the voice of reason shouted at her in her head as she kissed the blonde agent, though the bookstore was deserted and the agents trailing them stayed outside this was stupid but gods it felt so good and it didn’t hurt matters when Kara kissed her back. 

“Call me Lena, please,” she begged when the brief, but intense kiss was over, and Kara nodded her head while smiling down at her.

“I…” the blonde stammered clearly trying to overcome all her training and respect of protocol.

“I need to hear you say it…” she begged, and it wasn’t her proudest moment, but it was painfully clear that they both wanted this.

“Le..." Kara started but a random customer ruined their moment. "Let’s get you back to the hotel,” the blonde finished her sentence softly and reached out, pushed a lock of hair that had come free behind her ear and it made her knees go weak even though she was disappointed at not hearing Kara say her name.

Giving a silent nod she picked up a random book and bought it so it would look like she'd actually done some shopping. The grey-haired man behind the counter took her money with a knowing look and she could only smile back at him when he said something that probably translated to ah to be young and in love. They then walked back to the hotel with a respectable distance between them before Kara took her leave but not before promising to find a way to get to her room somehow if she could. Once the blonde was out of sight her security detail was back after having made themselves scarce during the walk.

Back in her room she allowed herself to breathe again as she pulled off her jacket and kicked off her boots and walked to the balcony to look outside. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, she realized that what they’d both done was beyond stupid, but she didn’t care. Looking down at the book she’d bought she laughed it bore the title, in French, of “How to woo women and win”. 

Then she almost screamed when a figure in zipped-up leather jacket appeared in front of her balcony window knocking on the glass, but she stopped herself because she saw it was Kara, tapping on the glass and waving at her. Opening the door, the blonde hurriedly stepped inside and looked around while rubbing herself to ward of the slight chill of the nighttime air. 

“I can’t believe you came!” she almost laughed and watched as Kara unzipped her jacket and it was clear that the woman had come straight to her balcony.

“Well you asked ma’am, but we’ve got fifteen minutes, tops,” the blonde declared looking around the room nervously with a trained eye.

Fifteen minutes alone with Kara Danvers, she could work with that, she decided and tossed the book onto a nearby chair. Deciding to be playful now that she had the blonde alone, she put her hands on her hips and smirked.

“Good, but that’s not my name?” she asked playfully and cocked her head to one side while Kara’s blue eyes went a bit wide as she sauntered up to the blonde agent.

“What is my name Captain Danvers,” she purred and hoped that this wasn’t taking things too far.

“Le… Lena,” the blonde actually stammered while standing at attention at being called Captain.

“Good, just so we’re clear you know what is about to happen right?” she asked as she found that she rather liked this new side of Kara while slipping her hands under the leather jacket the blonde wore to push it off her strong shoulders.

“I… I didn’t break into the room next door and climb across the balconies for cuddles, well I kind of did, but are you sure that… I mean we can’t really date or anything and it wouldn’t be fair to you or me if we...” the blonde started outright babbling as the jacket hit the floor.

“I'll keep this simple Captain, do you want to kiss me again? Because that’s what’s going to happen if you keep being this adorable,” she asked sweetly, and that simple question stopped Kara’s babbling as the blonde simply nodded.

“Great, come get it then,” she offered and playfully put her hands behind her back before leaning forward with her lips pursed and ready for a kiss.

“You… are… the…. worst,” Kara said each word with a pause and put both calloused hands on her face.

“Fourteen minutes…” she reminded the blonde and that was all it took for Kara’s soft lips to crash into hers.

They were alone, which meant she could be as bad as she wanted to be and gods, she knew that was coming because Kara freaking knew what she was doing. The blonde guided them towards the bed in between kisses with strong hands caressing her hips and ass until she ended up lying on the bed with Kara straddling her. 

“Lose the sweater,” she whispered, and Kara grinned before following orders by hurriedly removing her sweater revealing a dark blue bra underneath it.

“Fuck, you’re a goddess,” she moaned and let her hands run up the blonde agent’s well-defined abs and cupping her breast through the bra which made the blonde hiss from the touch.

“And… you’re… overdressed…” Kara stated breathlessly putting those strong hands on her breasts and pulling her top up to expose her stomach and white bra.

Putting her arms above her head while looking demure she allowed Kara to strip her of both her top and bra while she studied at the blonde as she undressed her. The was a look of curious admiration in Kara's blue eyes as those strong hands cupped her breasts and she felt Kara exploring them with an almost mesmerized look on her face.

“You like?” she asked somewhat shyly and the blonde nodded as she kept exploring her pale skin.

“You’re… so soft... and beautiful… and… god, these breasts…” Kara said while bending down and kissing her breasts which made her whimper.

“Kara... fuck... I want to feel you… she moaned and fumbled around for the clasp to the blonde’s bra while the woman sucked at her breasts which made it hard to think. 

After some fumbling with the blonde's bra, Kara raised herself up from her breasts so it could come off and the blonde’s breasts were firm, like the rest of her. They bore none of the scars that marked her torso on them but she did notice a small trident tattoo just under the blonde’s armpit marking her as a Navy Seal. 

“Was wondering where you hid that…” she admitted while tracing her fingers along the outlines of the small tattoo before she pulled Kara down on top of her trying to get as much skin to skin contact between them as she possibly could.

“Oorah!” the blonde laughed, and she kissed her hard for that joke as they started rolling around on the bed with her ending up on top this time and looking down at the blonde.

“Lena… you don’t have to...” the blonde almost whimpered at being pinned down even though in no way could she have pinned the woman down unless allowed to.

“I want to,” she whispered as she straddled the blonde’s thigh and let her hand slide down between the valley of her breast, over that firm stomach and to the waistband of her jeans.

“Fuck…” the blonde groaned and she took that as an invitation to proceed with her plan to rock Kara Danvers' world.

Pushing her hand down into the blonde’s jeans she wasted no time, they were on the clock after all and started rubbing her fingers along Kara’s smooth and wet sex which made the woman arch her back of the bed. Leaning down again she kissed the blonde’s swollen pink lips while looking into those blue eyes as her fingers found the spot which made Kara gasp into the kiss.

“I know this is rushed but don’t wait on my account darling,” she whispered into the blonde’s ear as their time together ticked down.

“So long… too fucking long…” Kara moaned clearly in a world of her own and that made her redouble her efforts to make the blonde agent orgasm while also putting her mind at ease in regards to her doubts earlier about if she was the blonde's only girl.

Slipping a finger inside the blonde’s tightness she pressed her breasts against Kara’s chest and urged her to let go. Feeling pink and stiff nipples rubbing against her own she started grinding on the woman’s thigh to relieve her own aching desires.

“Let me hear you, let go for me Kara,” she urged the blonde as they started moving together on the bed while still half-dressed and the urgency of their lovemaking made her head spin.

“Lena…” Kara moaned her name, and she felt the blonde agent clamping down on her finger and arching her back while holding onto the headboard of the bed for dear life.

“Louder!” she insisted and worked herself harder against the woman’s thigh, trying to time it so they’d both climax at roughly the same time while rubbing her thumb against the blonde’s sensitive button which pushed Captain Danvers over the edge.

“Fuck! Lena! I'm coming!” Kara shouted as she peaked and shook all over violently and she believed that it had been a long time for the blonde agent indeed.

“Me too... Kara… I...” she whimpered rubbing herself against the blonde’s thigh as she reached her less explosive orgasm but gods it felt good to do this with Kara.

Slumping down on top of the spent blonde she tried to catch her breath with her hand still stuffed down her jeans. Looking up she could see that those amazing blue eyes were closed and there was a rare relaxed look on Kara’s face, one she’d never seen before which was then ruined when the blonde’s watch started beeping and those sapphire blue eyes snapped open.

“Shit!” the blonde shouted all but throwing her off and rolling out of the bed while buttoning up her jeans as fast as she could.

“Kara calm down,” she laughed as the blonde finished doing up her pants and started looking around for her bra in a frantic panic.

“I’m calm, well sort of calm but I got to go, or I’ll be late for my shift so please find my bra!” the blonde begged with an apologetic look on her face.

“This one?” she asked holding up the lacey dark blue bra and the blonde snatched it away from her but not without giving her a quick kiss first as a thank you.

“Thank you, I promise we’ll talk about all that relationship stuff soon, real soon but I can’t be caught,” the blonde said while pulling her sweater over her head with limited success.

“Kara…” she said softly which made the blonde freeze with one arm in the sweater and her blonde head sticking halfway out of the neckline.

“Thank you for taking such a big risk for me,” she said softly, and the blonde pulled her sweater down with a big beaming smile on her beautiful face.

“I could say the same and you’re worth it,” the blonde stated, and the watch beeped again signaling that their time was now truly up as she pulled on her leather jacket.

“See you tomorrow?” she asked, and the blonde nodded giving her a quick salute before zipping up her jacket and opening the balcony doors.

“Yes ma’am and for the record, I really hate leaving right now because you look freaking hot on that bed!” the blonde said while lingering by the open balcony door and she giggled.

"Round two in Italy?" she asked while stretching out the bed with a wink and the blonde gave a low guttural groan at the show she was being treated to.

"I'll hold you to that ma'am," the blonde promised with a salute before vanishing into the night with the balcony door closing quietly behind her while she still lay on the bed with room smelling of sex and sweat. Whatever this latest development meant was a problem for future Lena because right now she felt too good to worry about it.

* * *

Across the street, a lone figure lay prone looking at Lena's balcony through a high-powered telescope and it witnessed Kara’s arrival and departure with a sly grin. Lena Luthor was a growing threat to the status quo and had to be dealt with, but not yet and not without an audience to witness her downfall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we end on a cliffhanger for the Holidays oh and they finally did it in case you missed it. I know it was rushed and sneaky but that's kind of been the theme of this story so far.
> 
> I won't be writing much for the next couple of weeks I think, but I might pop by to edit a few things in this story since admit to rushing this chapter out a little bit before the Holidays. 
> 
> Again I want to wish you all a Happy Holidays and give a big thanks to all of those who have given my stories a chance this year. These things are maybe my mid-life crisis coming through and I know I write weird niche stories while having given up on the show in season 2, but I'm enjoying writing again for the first time many a year and that's all thanks to you the readers.


	8. The Italian Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena is forced to bite her tongue while on a diplomatic mission to Italy and Maggie figures things out when the Nation's Chief Diplomat proves incapable of lying to her best friend, also Kara calls in a favor from an old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early Happy New Year everyone! My usual ramblings will be found at the end of the chapter

They were in Rome now and it had been two days since her all too brief moment of passion and wonderful weakness with Kara. Trying not to sweat in her form-fitting navy-blue pantsuit Lena was taking a tour of the Colosseum with the blonde agent of her day-dreams trailing right behind her every step of the way and it was driving her mad because a part of her wanted this to be a trip where it was only the two of them exploring these locales and not her surrounded a massive entourage of security, dignitaries and press which always crowded around them. That wasn't to say that she wasn't doing her job on this trip, however, at the conference in Geneva she’d managed to secure most of the concessions she’d sought for the treatment of civilians in conflict zones and humanitarian aid for refugees and in doing so she had in the words of some right-wing pundits back home overstepped her authority yet again. It was all part of her big and sinister lesbian conspiracy to take over the country apparently. 

Now it was time for a charm offensive in Italy on the request of President Jones, and she was, in the man’s own words, to show the NATO ally that it had not been forgotten and use some of that Luthor charm to grease the wheels of diplomacy, but much to her frustration her personal life was turning out to be the main topic of the day across the Italian media, seeing as she was both and single and out and proud in the heart of the Catholic Church. Granted it was the fact that she was single that they were focusing on above all else, so she could chalk that up as a bit of progress towards equality at least.

The focus on her spinsterhood as one paper had called it, however, had gotten so bad even before their arrival that Maggie had been forced to talk her down from holding a fire and brimstone speech about inclusivity and how being single wasn’t a bad thing in the twenty-first century and that had resulted in a small fight between her and her chief of staff and best friend. It would seem as she was finding out the hard way, that this job did at times strained friendships and when she paused for a photo of her thoughtfully looking out over the Colosseum's interior her mind flashed back to the argument they’d had in her hotel room that morning. 

“Lena, no!” Maggie had shouted at her and paced around the hotel room looking like she wanted to punch the wall or throw something against it or maybe even both.

“Why not, they’re attacking not only me but all of us, every woman who has ever chosen to be single or sacrificed her relationships for her career! And if I get asked one more time where my husband or wife is I might scream!” she protested and threw her hands in the air.

“You can’t do it because you can’t offend a NATO member and an ally by causing a scene at this point in time, and you know that,” Maggie reasoned with her while somehow managing to lower her voice and not flip the bed she was standing beside over.

“Well, maybe they need to be offended a bit!” she shouted and got right up into Maggie's face so she could look her friend in the eye. Part of the reason why she was so angry is that she didn't want to be single, she wanted to be with Kara but that was publicly not an option.

“I know that, but we’re here at the request of the President to show solidarity with an ally nation due to the current refugee crisis and tensions across the Mediterranean. Not to shock the system into accepting that being single at your age isn’t a death sentence,” Maggie said with a sigh before slumping down on the bed while playing with her own engagement ring.

The ring was a recent addition to her friend's finger, Maggie had been dating this rather nice girl on and off before she became Secretary of State following her predecessor's scandal but after the attempt on her life and by proxy Maggie's life, well once the dust settled the always impulsive and fiery woman had rushed to buy a ring make things official with her girlfriend stating that life was too fucking short to wait. 

“It still feels like we’re selling out…” she sighed in return and scooted over to sit down next to her friend.

“Lena, I won’t lie to you here, but we are selling out and we both know that it's a part of this job which is at times. Remember we sometimes have to find acceptable compromises and…” Maggie started to reason with her but then stopped when she noticed the tiny Eiffel Tower she always kept on her nightstand now to remind her of Kara.

“What is that?” the former police officer asked pointing at the souvenir and she felt her stomach drop as the panic set in. Shit, shit, shit why did I leave that out, think Luthor, think! She cursed at herself. 

“What is what? Oh, that, I picked it up in Paris,” she lied, badly, while trying to act innocent but Maggie was already reaching for the trinket on the nightstand and she had to fight the urge to rush over and grab it. 

“I was with you every step of the way in Paris and at no point did you buy a souvenir so unless…” Maggie trailed off while poking at the top of the tiny tower and gave her a firm look that said you better fess up Little Luthor or else!

“Kara… gave it to me,” she admitted quietly trying to look everywhere but at her friend while blushing at being busted. 

“Lena! Jesus!¨We’ve talked about this! I mean she’s hot and everything but ugh… scandals and shit!” her friend groaned and threw herself back on the bed while covering her face with her hands.

“I promise I’m being careful and I’m not drinking anymore, and she came to me and she’s so great Mags,” she blurted out trying to defend her weird not-quite relationship with Kara.

“Again, scandals and shit LL! What if you get photographed together or caught kissing or what if Alex Danvers finds out about you boning her little sister and sends the secret service after you?” Maggie raddled of her list of worries which got more and more far-fetched as she went down the list. 

“Then we say that we’re just friends like I did when I ran into her by accident in Geneva, and before you say anything, it wasn’t planned, I swear! And in Paris, it was she who found a way to sneak me that souvenir to me. Maggie, we're being careful I swear!” she pleaded and didn’t realize how desperate she sounded.

“You… you really like this girl, don’t you?” her friend asked after looking at her for a little while to no doubt try to read her expressions and emotions. 

“It might… it might be a bit deeper than that actually,” she admitted after a brief pause and though back to the night in Geneva and how she’d almost moaned out I love you when she was with Kara.

“Oh... well shit, no wonder the whole single thing is getting to you so much, and what did you do in Geneva? Did she come to your room by chance? Because all I'm saying is that you were very relaxed the next day,” Maggie cursed, before quizzing her and she nodded her head while lying down on the bed next to her friend with her arms crossed over her stomach which was home to those butterflies again.

“Yeah, she did and shit I suck at lying, don’t I? But Mags she’s amazing, like brave and smart but also shy and kinda cute when she lets her guard. Then when I met two of her friends in Geneva and they told me all these stories about her and yeah I'm screwed...” she said and found herself smiling.

“You're screwed big time! But what’s the plan here LL, keep it on the down-low for two to six years and then move to a farm in Kansas while yelling at me every time the media brings up the fact you're single?” Maggie asked as she turned her head to look at her and she had to give it to the woman that as always, her friend wasn’t afraid to ask the hard questions.

“I… maybe… I don’t know...” she tried to form her thoughts into words but again her vaunted genius-level intelligent failed her.

“Have you at least slept with her yet?” Maggie asked with an arched eyebrow and when she didn’t respond, her friend turned to look at her with a serious expression on her face.

“I… no! When would I have time to sleep with her?” she asked a bit too loudly, but Maggie could read her like an open book and she hated and loved it at the same time,

“Now I know something is up because you’d never deflect my question like that unless you were hiding something. When was it and don’t lie to me, was it in Paris or Geneva or the elevator? And If you haven't at least kissed her on this trip, then well, you're not the Lena Luthor I partied with in Metropolis back in the day,” her friend said poking her in the ribs.

“We... did it... the last night in Geneva… Mags please don't judge me... I mean what else could I do? She literally climbed onto my balcony to get into the room,” she admitted and blushed bright red.

“Oooh wow and what did you do? Don’t leave a girl hanging, spill chica! Was she all military precision, did she keep good time, oh did she drill you?” Maggie was laughing which earned her a swift hit from a nearby pillow.

“Shut up! For your information, it was rushed and amazing because she didn’t have long and she even set an alarm,” she laughed as she continued beating on her friend with the pillow.

“Owww, owww! I yield but you’re in trouble, a quickie with Captain Danvers and you’re thinking of the big L word already,” Maggie teased her while holding up her arms to defend herself from the pillow assault.

The big L, L for Love, fuck you are capital-S screwed now Luthor. she thought to herself and stopped wailing on Maggie with the pillow she’d grabbed. Did she love Kara Danvers? They’d known each other for what two months, maybe three and had a handful of friendly lunch dates. Granted they’d also had two late-night talks, their little stuck in an elevator moment, one assassination attempt followed by its nursing aftermath and one fifteen-minute lovemaking session. It wasn’t a normal courtship in any sense of the word, but did she love Kara?

“Earth to Little Luthor, you in there?” Maggie asked using her full nickname while tapping a knuckle to the side of her head.

“Yeah sorry, I was just thinking,” she apologized tossing the pillow back onto the bed and turning on her side to face her friend.

“About if you love her?” her friend asked also rolling on to her side and propping herself up on her elbow while not sounding teasing but rather like a supportive and true friend.

“Yeah, I think, maybe, I don’t know. Mags she’s a war hero has medals but also all these scars on her body and mind, it’s kind of scary but also exciting,” she said quietly.

“I don’t know what to tell you Little Luthor, but I can tell you that you picked a tough one to start falling in love with here,” Maggie said and gave her a quick hug.

“I didn’t say that I was in love with Kara,” she protested but it was a feeble protest because she had no doubts what so ever about it, she was falling for the tall blonde agent.

“I didn’t say that you are in love. I said that you’re falling in love, and hard!” her friend declared giving her a quick hug of affection and she returned the hug with a squeeze of her own.

"Alright personal drama out of the way, I promise that I won’t do an angry speeches today, but I’m not going to be some wilting flower in a dress on this stop either,” she said after they'd laid together for a while in silence, wanting desperately to switch topics and take her mind off Kara Danvers for a second.

“Deal! Let’s break out your best bad-ass bitch pantsuit then!” Maggie laughed at her change of topic but being a good friend, she let it slide.

All in all, letting Maggie in on her secret had felt good and her friend was supportive while still worrying about the potential repercussions of Kara and her not-quite dating going forward. Another worry she had though, was the question if she could pretend to be Kara’s friend while in public and did she even want that? Kara had told her that the blonde’s friends and trusted coworkers already knew that they were friends so that was a start at least. 

“We’re ready to move on with the tour when you are ma’am,” Kara’s voice snapped her back from her little flashback, and she found herself staring at the inside of the Colosseum having asked for a moment to herself.

“Thank you, Agent Danvers,” she nodded briskly and looked at the blonde’s face while fixing the jacket of the navy-blue pantsuit she'd worn with bright red pumps. Do you love her? The voice in the back of her mind asked and she had no answer for it sadly.

“Anything wrong ma’am?” the agent asked when she'd gazed into those sapphire blue eyes a bit too long and how the blonde stayed professional no matter what continued to amaze her at every turn.

“Nothing at all… in fact things are perfect now that you mention it, so lead on Agent Danvers,” she said, and the blonde nodded with a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth before leading the way. Stopping her wandering eyes was hard though because she was sure that the bit of a sway to the blonde agent’s hips was for her benefit as she was led back to her precession of minor functionaries, press and onlookers.

* * *

After a day of smiles and politely answering questions about why she didn’t have a wife or a husband she was back in her hotel room cleaning of her make-up and wiggling her jaw which hurt from all the smiling she’d been forced to do. Luthors didn’t smile, they smirked or grinned, but never smiled. The pantsuit was strewn all over the bathroom as well and she'd slipped into her favorite set of beaten up pajama bottoms and a white tank-top for the evening. 

“It’s like they never met a single woman before,” she muttered to herself and washed off her red lipstick which she wished she could have smeared all over Kara’s pink lips at several points during her tour of the Eternal City.

Though she wasn't really single, she reasoned with herself what with Kara Danvers in her life now and thinking of the blonde she felt her pale face flushing and she saw it in the mirror, clear as day, what effect simply thinking about Kara Danvers had on her.

“Teenager much Luthor? And I got to stop talking to myself,” she told her reflection and checked her phone before her overactive brain had a chance to bring up the L-word question again.

Wandering out into the main area of the hotel room again she sighed since her life as of late had become a series of endless hotel rooms and speeches. Days filled with smiling at the cameras, rubbing elbows with dignitaries, bullying some of them to get what she or the President wanted, but she was making progress. In Geneva, she’d wrung concessions out of the Chinese and Russians, in Paris she’d hammered out deals that maybe wouldn’t save the world but would put it on the right track. On the downside of things, her European tour meant that things at home at been left mostly unattended and she knew she’d need to take care of things once she got back to the States. That again brought up the question of whether or not she even had the time for a relationship with Kara, no matter if she was in love with the blonde or not, and she was nowhere near close to having an idea about how they’d pull it off without both of them being fired from the ensuing scandal.

Then her phone rang, and she almost jumped and dropped it, the number was Kara’s number which she had of course memorized. but Kara hadn’t contacted her over the phone since they agreed to stop texting to hide any evidence of their social involvement following the attempt on her life. 

“Ka-Kara?” she asked picking up the phone with her voice shaking a bit and then found herself smiling from ear to ear.

“Yeah it’s me, I called in a favor with my friend Brainy, who did something to my phone and we’re secure now,” the blonde told her in a hushed voice.

“Brainy?” she asked and couldn't stop herself from laughing since Kara’s former team members from her Navy days sounded like such a motley crew. Having met James and Barry she kind of looked forward to meeting the others sometimes if only for more stories of Kara. 

“We served together remember, he’s super smart and owed me a favor so now we can talk whenever we want,” the blonde said cheerfully, and she could have sworn the agent was giggling.

“Yeah I remember and really?” she asked and wondered who this man was and why she hadn’t thought about this herself, which she put down to too much time playing politics.

“Uh uh, I want us to… well I want us to have a relationship ma’am, somehow and someway, and I’m sorry I rushed off in Geneva and can I say that you were super pretty today... like it made my knees weak how in charge and bad-ass you looked facing all those stupid questions,” the blonde blurted out and she felt her heart sore.

“Me too!” she exclaimed and then felt herself blushing. “I mean me too about wanting a relationship with you and weak at the knees uh?” she asked in a bit calmer voiced while Kara laughed at her outburst.

“Well I’m glad because else I might have asked a friend to do something borderline illegal for no reason and yes ma’am there was a full-on shaking going on down there today,” Kara laughed nervously on the other end of the line.

“Keep talking like that I might be the one shaking at the knees and gods, I missed your voice,” she admitted hoping she wasn’t being too soppy or distracted by the thought of Kara noticing her through the agent's always professional exterior.

“You’re not so bad yourself ma’am, plus I saw the local news stories about you today so I thought you could use some cheering up,” the blonde said sweetly, and she felt herself melting on the inside to such a degree she had to lay down.

“You're too sweet but I’ve had worse, and what did I tell you about my name?” she asked and grinned as she wiggled around to get comfortable on the bed.

“Force of habit and years of training, don’t worry, I know it’s Lena,” Kara said, and she felt those butterflies swarming in her stomach yet again.

“God, say that again,” she giggled as she teased Kara and wished she could hug the blonde agent right now.

“Lena,” Kara said slowly and dragged out each letter of her name which sent her into another fit of giggles.

“You mentioned use being together somehow and someway, what... what did you mean by that?” she asked once she got her breathing under control.

“Well I've been thinking... like a lot and let me start off with being saying that I’m not a girl in every port kind of sailor,” Kara said and then paused. “What I mean is that when I do things I don’t fool around,” the blonde then added, and she wanted to squeal.

“Me too! I mean we can never go public about it while I'm Sec-State, but I would never, you know...” she trailed off after another outburst that made her worry for Kara’s eardrums. 

“Sleep around? I didn’t take you for that kind of woman,” Kara replied, and she could hear the smile in the blonde’s voice.

“Wouldn’t have the time to do that and god that sorts horrible but sometimes it feels like I barely have time for whatever this is,” she muttered feeling both happy and sad and then Kara made her only happy if a little bit shocked.

“What this is, is me asking you to be my girl, Lena Luthor,” Kara said formally, and she froze after clamping a hand over her mouth to stop a squeal and almost dropping her phone again.

“Shocked you into silence ma’am?” the blonde asked when there wasn’t a reply and relapsed into calling her ma’am again. 

“You… you certainly don’t play around Captain Danvers,” she said once she gathered her thoughts for a second.

“No ma’am and is that a yes?” the blonde asked with her voice going from being firm and commanding to hopeful and a bit scared.

“I’m terribly busy you know and a workaholic…” she said but was smiling into the phone yet wanted to lay the cards on the table for the woman first.

“I’m aware ma’am and you're prone to loud outbursts when excited I've just found out,” Kara replied sounding like she was being patient above all else while also teasing her tiny bit.

“And I used to be a bit of a drinker but I'm working on that…” she went on and really wanted to have it all out there before she gave her answer, Kara deserved that much.

“I saw that and I believe that you have the willpower to succeed at anything you put before you. But I should remind you in the name of full disclosure that I’m an old soldier who has scars and ghosts that will always haunt me,” Kara countered and that was true but the woman's honesty was admirable.

“I wouldn’t call you old and didn’t you know chicks dig scars,” she laughed feeling herself flushing at memories of Kara topless on top of her the other night.

“So you’ve told me before, now that we've listed our faults... don’t leave a girl hanging ma’am, please,” the blonde sweetly begged.

“I can't say no to a please like that and it’s a yes, but on one condition Captain,” she said and could have sworn she heard a barely suppressed squeal on the other end.

“Name it!” the blonde agent almost shouted into her ear, so she had to move the phone away for a second. 

“It’s two things really. First is that we talk, every night when we can and I won’t push you, but I want to know more about you Kara,” she said as sweetly and softly as she could.

“I… I can try… and the second thing?” the blonde asked hesitantly with her usually firm voice shaking slightly.

“It’s Lena not ma’am, or my girlfriend if you’re feeling adventurous,” she said with a smirk and rolled onto her stomach.

“My girlfriend Lena… I could get used to that,” the blonde said with a nervous giggle and it was clear this was the first-time ages the former soldier was letting anyone in.

“I like the sound of that too and be warned I’ve never dated someone with a military background, hell I’ve not really dated anyone in over a decade,” she admitted and had it really been that long since Sam, she wondered.

“That is what historians call a long ass time ma’am, I’ve not been with anyone… since before my last deployment,” Kara snorted and then revealed a bit more about herself in a quieter once.

“My last one… her name was Sam and it lasted for three months before I left Metropolis,” she admitted thinking of the girl that hadn’t wanted to leave with her when she decided to quit LexCorp.

“For me. his name was Adam, but I wasn’t in a good place really and in the end, I couldn’t put him through all the shit I was dealing with,” Kara said back and there was a pause.

“Yeah, I wasn’t kidding about being bi… by the way,” the blonde chuckled and she found herself smiling because as blunt as Kara was being she was opening up a little bit.

“Neither of us are kids anymore Kara and I’m certainly not virginal myself when it comes to these things,” she said and that earned her a loud laugh from the blonde.

“I can attest to that!” Kara blurted out and she would have liked to imagine the blonde blushing on the other end of the phone.

“Glad you approve Captain,” she said with a smirk and now her mind was going back to that night in the Geneva hotel.

“Oh, I approve too... I mean I’ve been thinking about that night a lot and it had been a long time since anyone… saw me like that,” the blonde said.

“Sounds like a long time and I meant what I said Kara, you look like a goddess,” she said softly and rolled onto her back staring up at the ceiling.

“You’re the goddess… I mean if the media only knew what you look like under those suits you wear… all that pale and soft skin... crude question but are you in bed?” the blonde asked, and she could hear her breathing becoming rapid. 

“As a matter of fact, I am, what you got in mind Captain?” she asked feeling the heat rising in her stomach at the sound of the blonde’s breathing.

“Oh, nothing like that, well a little like that. It’s just that I watch you every day, guard you and… and I want to hear you moan my name again… feel you… again, so freaking bad,” the blonde whispered and it almost sounded like a plea for help, for closeness or simply for that connection to someone she’d denied herself for a long time..

“Like this? Kara…” she purred holding the phone between her chin and shoulder while she squeezed her breasts thinking of the blonde.

“Fuck… are… are you touching them?” the blonde groaned on the other end of the line clearly referring to her breasts.

“Just for you my Captain, do you like them?” she giggled which slipped into a moan when she played with her nipples until they were hard for Kara’s listening pleasure.

“I love them!” Kara blurted out and that made her smile wider than it had any right to as she kept massaging her breasts with her hands imaging them to be Kara's strong calloused hands.

“Are you wearing that black suit you always wear?” she teased the blonde agent and felt herself rubbing her thighs together.

“Yes ma’am, the shirt and slacks ma’am,” the blonde replied, and she could picture the woman snapping to attention.

“Unbutton those pants for me, Agent Danvers,” she whispered, and she could hear the rustling sound on the other end of Kara undoing her pants.

“Done... I… I undid them and pushed them down,” Kara whispered shyly, and she could, as far-fetched as it sounded, hear the woman blushing. 

“Touch yourself for me Kara,” she moaned and let one hand slide into the pajama bottoms she’d thrown on to find herself already wet. 

“Gods…” Kara’s moan rang in her ears and she started touching herself in time with the muscular blonde's moans.

“Rub your clit and think of me kneeling between your legs,” she said softly and licked her lips since she was dying to taste the blonde’s wetness now.

“I… want you… so bad…” the blonde admitted in between little moans of pleasure and she could hear how wet she was over the phone.

“Want you too, my blonde bodyguard, now rub yourself harder for me and don’t worry just let it all go,” she groaned, and it was getting hard to talk with her own hand stuffed down her bottoms as she toyed with her nipples through her tank-top.

“Lena… I… so close...” the blonde stammered and the squishy wet noises of her masturbating got louder in her ears, not that she wasn’t in any better of a place.

“Come for me, Kara… can’t wait to… to taste you...” she groaned while pushing her fingers insider herself which made her arch her back. 

"I want you... Lena... do you hear how much I want you?" Kara moaned and she could hear it with the blonde's actions echoing in her ear while she fingered herself.

"I can... I want to taste you too... going to eat you out until you are screaming..." she felt her thighs clamping down on her hand and her insides squeezing her fingers before her world exploded into stars as she came hard just thinking about Kara’s wet pussy against her lips.

“You came... I remember those sounds... I need you… fuck… it’s happening,” the blonde moaned and then there were only moans and groans followed by a loud satisfied sigh.

“Haven’t done that in a long ass time either,” she giggled when she came around again and when there was no reply, she got a bit worried.

“Kara you there darling?” she asked and heard some rustling sounds before Kara’s voice could be heard again.

“Had to fix my pants sorry, always prepared and all that, your voice though it’s clear why you are the Nations Chief Diplomat,” the blonde giggled and she shook her head.

“Don’t think phone sex would work on the Russians though,” she quipped which earned her more giggles.

“You are the worst but… but I… I trust you Lena and how you almost yelled at Flash the other night was super cute,” the blonde whispered as they slipped into comfortable pillow talk.

“Well, you’re my girl and he did a god-awful job with your stitches back in the day,” she said and something about how Kara was whispering was extra sweet.

“In his defense, we were under artillery fire at the time and I was shouting at Headquarters for backup through a busted radio,” Kara said defending her friend with her voice still barely a whisper and she felt like she was hearing the girl behind the steel.

“How many purple hearts again?” she asked only half-joking because she knew the blonde had three.

“Three purple hearts, bronze star, the navy cross, oh and a medical discharge in a pear-tree,” the blonde rattled off and she wasn’t sure if the agent was joking or not.

“What… what caused the discharge? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” she asked and then quickly back-peddled not wanting to push the blonde too hard to open up.

“I… those three bullet holes on my back caused it,” Kara said quietly and again she wanted to hug the blonde through the phone.

“How… how did it happen?” she asked softly and waited for the blonde to go on.

“We were on patrol, nothing major really it was in a green zone, supposedly safe, and there was this kid. He shouldn’t have been there, but he wanted to see the troops,” the blonde went on.

“You don’t have to tell me more,” she said not wanting to cause the woman any pain.

“No you deserve to hear this, there was an attack, they drove a car through a checkpoint and... and the kid got in the way, so I jumped on top of him to shield him but that didn’t stop them… I took a burst from an AK-47 in the shoulder and then Oliver and James took them out and next thing I remember is waking up in a military hospital in Germany,” Kara went on and fuck she wanted to hug the blonde badly right now.

“Kara, darling, where are you?” she asked and got out of the bed while pulling on a white robe and stuffing her feet into a pair of slippers

“My room… one floor down from you… don’t come… don’t risk it I'm not worth it,” the blonde replied after a moment, and she was sure she was crying or trying not to cry.

“Stay put, I’m coming and I mean it,” she stated firmly and thinking fast grabbed the ice-bucket before marching out of her room.

“Just getting some ice for my soda guys don’t get up on my account,” she said to the agents on guard outside her door while flashing them a smile to hopefully disarm them.

They didn’t follow her, thank god, so once she turned the corner she dove into the stairwell and ran for Kara’s room as fast as her feet would carry her and knocked on the door. After what felt like a lifetime, the door opened, just a crack, and she was greeted by Kara’s tear-streak face and the blonde wore only an untucked white shirt and her suit pants while wiggling hear bear toes nervously.

"Hi..." the blonde said in a broken little voice and it felt like someone was squeezing her heart from seeing the usually strong and confident blonde so broken like this.

“Hi... I’m adding a third thing to the rules of our relationship. I’m your girlfriend and that means I come when you’re feeling bad, sad or in trouble,” she said firmly, dropped the ice-bucket and hugged the blonde as hard as she could.

“I…” the blonde tried to speak but the words seemingly wouldn’t come so she hugged her even tighter.

“You’re brave and bold and I’m not scared of the person you used to be or the person you are now. Kara, you are worth it!” she whispered to the blonde and kept squeezing her girlfriend. Gods, even thinking that word felt weird but oddly right. They stayed in the doorway for as long as she could get away with and it was Kara who broke the hug and spoke with her voice returning somewhat to normal.

“Thank... thank you, it means a lot to me to hear that, but go before you’re missed,” Kara urged her wiping away her tears and smiling at her with that beaming smile despite the tears.

“I will, I’ll call you when I get back to my room,” she promised and gave the blonde a quick kiss before running back to her room before the agents no guard would miss her too much.

“Lena wait!" Kara called out as loud as the situation allowed for and she froze. "Ice-bucket!” the blonde then laughed, tossing her the bucket which she caught and the blonde flashed her a grin. 

“You’re the best!” she whispered as loudly as she could before racing to find some ice and hopefully getting back to her room before she would be missed.

Back in her room, with the ice slowly melting in the bucket, she collapsed back onto her bed and called Kara back right away if only to reassure the blonde that she had her back no matter what and that she’d always be there for her. Then a call came through, it was the White House and she was needed back home immediately because some tinpot dictator was saber-rattling again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I managed to find a bit of time here and there over the holidays to write, this might not be my finest work and if it was a rough read I'm sorry, but I'm rather fond of this chapter as it establishes our two idiots as a couple, secretly but still a couple, and I really enjoyed writing the interaction between Maggie and Lena as well. This is roughly about the half-way point for the story as the plot goes, with things picking up on the plot side of things next chapter if I can keep my head out of the fluffy clouds for a second.
> 
> I'm also debating how deeply to go into the political and diplomatic side of things here, kind of like all the time while writing this story, I do like having Lena being this powerful person as a backdrop for her relationship to Kara and I'm afraid if I start going heavy into political stuff that well my liberal colors will fly very brightly (if they haven't already) and I'll piss people off. Though since I'm writing SuperCorp fanfic I would guess most of you are fairly open-minded folks, right? 
> 
> And yes I lost my battle with the smut in this chapter, that scene wasn't in the original draft but got added in one of the billions of revisions that I do as a way of showing Kara's willingness to vulnerable around Lena. I think this is probably the fourth time or fifth time in my stories I have them engage in phone sex so I guess that makes it a trope for me as a writer eh?
> 
> Finally, I'm writing the USA as a bit more liberal then it really is and I know that and that's simply because, hey I'm not American, ah fooled you all! And I come from a country where things are a bit more open, heck we a gay prime minister a few years back. A cookie to those who can google and guess what country I'm from based on that!


	9. In the Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back on US soil, Lena has to defuse a potential crisis, face down Alex Danvers, all while fighting her demons and her past. Thankfully Kara is there to cheer her up at the end of the day.

The White House situation room was crowded and hot despite it being climate controlled, and in there Lena was wedged in between an admiral and a three-star general as the President was briefed on the latest activities of certain Asian dictator who was getting a bit too big for his britches. As she fixed her white blouse for the third time, having been whisked here the moment she touched down on American soil, she found herself wishing that she'd been given the time to shower and change. 

“In conclusion Mr. President, their latest missile test, if the reports are correct, represents a massive leap in their technology with them easily being able to reach the west coast of the Continental United States,” CIA Director Holmes, a man in his sixties with graying hair, concluded his presentation. 

Looking around the room she studied each person around the table, men in suits and men uniforms for the most and her, well there was one other woman in the room but she was trying not to look at her or be noticed by her if humanly possible. 

“How did this happen?” President Jones asked while Alex Danvers hovered behind him with her ever-present tablet in hand. Alex Danvers whose sister, she was now dating in secret and she struggled for a second to keep her mind on the task at hand.

“We suspect it might have been the Chinese or the Russians,” the CIA Director, or as Kara had called him a CIA Suit, concluded and she shook her head on impulse.

“You don’t agree with the Director's assessment, Lena?” the President asked and looked at her with a serious expression on his face and his brows wrinkled.

“The Chinese wouldn’t upset the balance of power in the region that much and the Russians can barely get their own rockets to fly right now,” she said looking around the table.

“And how do you know that Madam Secretary?” the CIA Director asked, clearly upset and likely suspecting her of withholding information, and she merely shrugged.

“I had a nice chat with my Chinese counterpart in Geneva and our dictator friend might have come up in them,” she explained and held up her hand before he could protest.

“And before you start what you’re about to say, let me say that I didn’t have time to fill the CIA in since I was rushed onto a plane in Rome and literally just landed before being whisked to this cozy little room here,” she added and smirked at the CIA Suit who backed down.

“Alright, if not the Chinese, why not the Russians? You said their rockets aren’t ready, but that might have changed, correct?” President Jones asked and again looked at her.

“Not in their interest sir, they’re focused on Eastern Europe and from what Director Holmes just told us about this tech, well it isn’t on the Russians level, yet,” she explained her logic again and looked around the room.

“Well, since you seem to be the best informed of us all why don’t you give us your theory on this?” the President asked her, flashing her a quick smile while Alex gave her a measured look, judging and evaluating her no doubt. 

“Very well, I don’t think it was a nation-state who helped them achieve this,” she said, and a murmur went through the room.

“And what do you have to back that up, Madam Secretary?” the CIA suit asked her, and she flashed him a quick smirk.

“Right now, it’s just a theory, but I spent the last two weeks surrounded by our allies, friends and sometimes foes. At no point did anyone even hint at anything like this and it’s human nature to want to let’s say rub something like this, but nobody did,” she reasoned while running every conversation she’d had in the past two weeks through her mind to try to sift for tiny details she might have missed.

“That’s one hell of a hunch,” The President observed giving her a measured look and she returned it with her own steely gaze.

“It is, but we need to look at who profits from this and right now neither of our traditional adversaries on the world stage would and those who could are either our allies, friends or don’t possess the tech. This leads me to believe that some form of private enterprise might have been involved,” she argued and made a mental note of calling Lex later.

There was a pause around the table again as she looked both the CIA Director and then the President dead in the eye, she knew she was right, but also didn’t quite have all the pieces together yet, but she had to stop them from rushing off and doing something stupid like aggravating the usual suspects.

“Cui bono,” the President then chuckled once she’d held his gaze for a moment. 

“Exactly, to whom is it a benefit,” she nodded and looked at the CIA director again who was shaking his head, but she could bring him around, she was sure of it.

“Mr. President, I believe that Director Holmes and I can work together on this. I still have some in-roads into the private sector that I’d be willing to share with the CIA and together we can get to the bottom of this, with the CIA taking the lead of course,” she offered a compromise and after a moment of thought, the President nodded his head.

“Very well, but I want you to slap new sanctions on them, understood?” the President told her, and she gave a firm nod.

“On the ruling class of course first and foremost, right?” she asked having spent the past two weeks lobbying for the humane treatment of civilians in conflicts.

“I leave the details to your discretion Lena, just make sure they work,” the President said and then dismissed them.

Before she could get out of the stuffy room, the last person she wanted to talk to stopped her and she found herself face to face with Alex Danvers which made her heart beat faster as the nerves set in. Kara and she had agreed that they’d keep their relationship secret, but this was Kara’s big sister and keeping her in the dark felt somehow wrong.

“Can I have a word Madam Secretary?” the White House Chief of Staff asked, wearing an impeccable grey dress and heels that forced her to look up at her. Damn, being around the Amazonian like Danvers woman did have its drawbacks.

“Of course,” she managed to say while battling the nervous monster in her belly and they retreated to a quiet corner with the taller woman towering over her.

“It’s come to my attention that you and Kara, well let’s say that you have become friends,” the tall brunette said, and she fought back a gulp.

“Yes, yes we have,” she answered truthfully, well almost, since she saw no point in lying to the woman.

“First of all, thanks for not lying to me and while Kara and I might not always see eye to eye, she is my little sister. Do we understand each other?” Alex then asked flashing a quick smile that didn’t do anything to ease her panic.

“We do,” she said wanting to let the woman speak her piece and get this out of the way since this wasn’t the first time in her life that she was on the receiving end of one of these talks. 

“Kara… has been through a lot and if you intend to stick around, I hope you are aware of that,” Alex went on and she could hear and see that the woman cared deeply for Kara but also that she was carefully coding her words.

“I know, we’ve had a few talks about it,” she replied fighting back to the urge to blurt out how she planned on being there for the blonde agent no matter what. 

“Good, we’re on the same page then and this little talk, never happened are we clear?” the tall brunette asked, and she gave a quick nod. 

“We’re clear and I...” she started to say how she’d never hurt Kara if only to put the woman’s mind at ease somehow.

“You don’t have to say anything, and you shouldn’t,” Alex interrupted her softly and put a hand on her shoulder briefly before pulling it away to which again she could only mutely nod.

“Thank you for your time, Madam Secretary,” the brunette then said, turned and walked away leaving her to stare at her retreating form. 

Standing frozen in the corner of the room she thought about what had just gone down. What did Alex Danvers know and how had she found out? Had the Chief of Staff guessed it based on something or was there someone watching them she was not aware of? So, her mind raced once again with the implications of her relationship with Kara, how it risked everything they’d both worked hard for and yet they couldn’t back away from the abyss no matter how hard they tried. Alex hadn’t told her to break things off with Kara either, the more rational part of her reminded her and this had been a not so thinly veiled a don’t hurt my little sister talk more than anything else.

“You’re staring into space again Luthor,” Maggie interrupted her as her Chief of Staff came to fetch her while holding onto the vest of her three-piece suit. 

“Noted, but let’s get back to the State Department we got to find out who gave that short little man those plans and fast,” she said snapping to attention.

“Only after you go home and shower,” her friend said waving her hand in front of her face to waft away the smell of the eight-hour plane ride they’d endured.

“Fair enough, but I think both of us need one of those, Chanel No. 5 can only cover up so much,” she laughed, pinched her nose and poked her friend in the shoulder.

“So, what did the evil Chief of Staff want with you anyway?” Maggie whispered as they headed out of the room and Kara and another agent fell into step behind them.

“Tell you later,” she whispered back, and Maggie threw a quick glance back at Kara with an annoying knowing look on her face. It was clear that she and Kara needed to have a long talk and soon about exactly how to proceed with Alex Danvers now being in the know.

* * *

Once back at her apartment she stood under the hot spray of the shower and leaned her head against the tiles, her suit was strewn all over the bathroom as usual and she sighed as she tried to let the hot water wash her worries away. It was all a bit too much, the attempt on her life, the whirlwind tour through Europe and now this crackpot dictator possessing tech he shouldn’t have. That was even before the revelation that Alex fucking Danvers somehow knew about her and Kara’s relationship or at least parts of it. 

Making a list of the people who knew about Kara and her, she groaned even though it was a shortlist. Maggie, of course, knew everything and so did Lex to a degree, but she could count on them to stay quiet. Kara’s friends from her time in the Seals and some co-workers knew but only that they were friends. That left Alex Danvers as the wildcard and on top of that, the woman was responsible for the review of her efficiency as Secretary of State in less than four months. Yet, the brunette had seemed more concerned with Kara’s well-being than anything else so maybe she’d judged her wrong at the start. 

Stepping out of the shower she wrapped a towel around herself and put her hair up with another one while again staring at herself in the mirror. Needing to talk to Kara, see Kara and thus she grabbed her phone but then put it back down. It would be too risky since the blonde was on duty and damn it, she wanted a stiff drink right about now. 

“Fuck!” she shouted at her reflection and banged her fists on the bathroom counter at the same time. 

You’re stronger than this Luthor, she mentally reminded herself. You’re stronger than your addictions and you’re stronger than your fears. 

Storming into the living room with renewed purpose she grabbed her laptop and started furiously typing away at it, hitting up old contacts in the private sector and tapping into her own considerable IT knowledge she poured over the data from the CIA. Working was what she needed to do right now when she was working she didn’t think of her girlfriend Kara Danvers, or the booze or what a fucking mess her life was right now. Hours later, she was still in her pajamas and still hammering away at her keyboard with several cans of energy drink strewn around the couch. 

On the screen, she’d plotted out the trail of the missile tech, at least based on the information that she had at hand. Kate Kane at WayneTech had been helpful and pleasantly flirty as always, Ted Kord once she got him to stop flirting had also provided some valuable information but she needed a few more pieces of information, but she was loathed to contact the last person on her list for that information. 

Again, holding her phone, a bit too tightly she dialed a very old number and she didn’t even know if it was the right one, but she still remembered it. It was Sam’s number, her last girlfriend before all but fleeing Metropolis and her life there to try and make the world a better place. Swallowing pride and ignoring her fears she hit dial.

“Hello?” the voice on the other end asked and she found her mouth going dry until the voice asked again: “Hello, who is this?”

“Sam… it’s me… Lena,” she said fighting back the shaking in her voice and squeezing the couch with her free hand.

“Lena, Lena Luthor?” the woman on the other end asked sounding stunned more than anything else.

“Yeah, I know it’s out of the blue, but I’m working on something and I… I could really need your help,” she said and hoped that her ex wouldn’t hang up on her.

“Oh and am I right to guess this is something to do with your current role as Secretary of State?” the woman asked with a laugh and she smiled despite herself.

“You’d be correct, it’s to do with national security and you were always the smart one,” she said and crossed her fingers hoping she didn’t come as too flirty. 

“Flattery only gets you so far Lena, but since it’s in the service of national security, I guess I could help you,” Sam said softly, and she felt her stomach clenching as the memories came flooding back. 

“Thank you, I know I don’t have any right to call you after all this time and…” she started apologizing.

“You don’t, but tell me what you need,” Sam said with a bit more bite to her voice as she cut her off and she licked her lips before speaking again.

“We’re looking into missile and rocket tech, hypersonic research that might have been hacked or stolen in the past year. Does your company have any records of that?” she asked getting to the point. 

“Let me look, hold on. Ruby get my laptop, will you?” she heard the woman call out and again her stomach sank.

“Ruby, how… how is she?” she asked and remembered Sam’s precocious daughter, Ruby, whom she’d only met a handful of times before skipping town she would probably in college by now.

“Lena, why are you asking me that? You left, remember? And then I don’t hear from you for years until you call me out of the blue on matters of national security. What’s going on, are you drinking again?” her ex both girlfriend and friend asked with a sigh. 

“No… I stopped that I swear, and I’m sorry, look just email me whatever you find,” she admitted and got ready to hang up.

“Lena, wait! Don’t hang up, are you alright?” Sam called out before she could hang up and she wanted to kick herself.

“Not really, things are a bit of a mess right now,” she admitted and curled up on the couch with her phone.

“Is it more or less of a mess than when you left Metropolis?” Sam asked with a chuckle and she had to think if this was indeed a bigger mess or not.

When she’d left Metropolis to do good as she’d told Kara when they first met, she’d not been in the best place mentally and in Maggie’s words a bit of a dumpster fire. She’d been burned out from working at LexCorp night and day and drinking too hard in a losing effort to ignore the pain of never being good enough in the eyes of her parents. It had been in that time she’d met Sam, a single mom and who was seemingly everything she was not, stable, dependable and endlessly patient. They’d hit it off at a Luthor Fundraiser and sort of dated for a few months before the meltdown which led to her leaving both Metropolis, LexCorp and her fledgling relationship with Sam. But this was more of a mess she concluded, what with two careers and reputations on the line. 

“More, I met someone and it’s a mess,” she said softly and remembered how she’d drunkenly begged Sam to come with her all those years ago, but the woman in return had simply asked her to stay because she couldn’t uproot her daughter's life on a whim.

“Oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Sam said quietly, and she could hear a muffled thank you as well, no doubt to Ruby for bringing the laptop.

“Did you ever…” she trailed off not wanting to take this discussion further, but her brain wouldn’t let her stop, but she wanted to know that Sam was happy. 

“I did, as a matter of fact, about five years ago and he’s been great with Ruby, he's out of town this week,” Sam said and didn’t sound offended at all.

“I never said I’m sorry for how I left things,” she said and squeezed her eyes shut on reflex expecting to be yelled at.

“You’re saying it now, Lena you weren’t in a good place when you left and now all that matters is that you don’t do the same thing again,” her ex said while being way too kind to her than she deserved.

“And I’m happy for you and Ruby,” she said while hearing Sam tapping away at her laptop over the phone.

“Thank you, so tell me about this mess of yours while I dig through these security reports for you,” Sam hummed a bit while working and she bit her lip debating how much she should divulge.

“Blonde, ex-Seal, tough but sweet when she wants to be but kind of off-limits,” she gave a few keywords to describe Kara.

“You haven’t changed a bit,” Sam laughed, and she had to admit that the woman was right.

“I’d like to think I have, maybe just a little bit,” she protested even though she still struggled with her more destructive urges. 

“Well, for being one of the smartest people I’ve ever met you do let your heart control your actions a lot though,” her ex countered and darn it she was right.

“If I was as smart as you say I would have stayed,” she admitted and it was one of the biggest disappointments of her life that she’d left Sam and her daughter behind when she fled because she’d let her fears and demons control her actions. 

Though she also felt that whatever feelings she once had from Sam had faded to a pleasant memory, but that didn’t mean that hearing her voice again didn’t make her feel nostalgic for those days in Metropolis. Even if she’d been deep in the bottle towards the end, Sam had tried to get her to stop, it had been the woman who asked her what she really wanted to do with her life and that had led to her new nebulous mission statement of doing something good and meaningful

“Self-pity doesn’t suit you Lena, and I hope this new girl in your life tells you the same thing,” Sam told her in her 'mom voice' her and the woman had her beat when it came to maturity by a country mile. 

“It’s still kind of new, but I think she would,” she laughed, and her laptop pinged with an email from Sam.

“As much as I hate to end this pity party, I just found out something interesting. It seems that we had a data breach at our R&D Department about six months ago and I’m sending you everything I could find on it,” Sam said, and she reached for her laptop to check the message.

“Thanks, Sam and again I’m sorry for calling you out of the blue like this,” she apologized while opening up her laptop.

“Happy to help, and don’t be a stranger you hear me? I know, we didn’t end things the right way back in the day, but I’ve got your back if you need me,” Sam said and again she wanted to kick herself.

“I’ll remember that I’m going to read this over so talk to you later, okay?” she asked and was already scanning the documents.

“Okay, but you take care of yourself, Lena,” Sam said and after promising she would try her best she hung up.

The data from Sam was illuminating but there were still holes in her theory that needed to be plugged and hopefully the CIA suits would be able to help on that front. Writing up an outline of her findings she closed her laptop and leaned back on the couch. How different would her life have been if she’d stayed in Metropolis, gotten sober and stayed with Sam? No, self-pity wasn’t going to help matters, that was years ago, and this was the now. 

Again, she picked up her phone, Kara would be off duty by now and probably heading home to take off her black suit before slipping into a pair of faded jeans and a beat-up t-shirt. Was she right to call her? They were exclusive now and she’d promised they’d talk more, but she didn’t want to come off as too needy either. 

“No self-pity, no fear,” she said to herself and dialed Kara’s number and waited for the blonde to pick up.

“Hey, you,” Kara’s voice replied cheerfully, and the blonde agent seemed to be in a good mood tonight.

“Hi, I tried to wait until you were off duty,” she admitted and stretched out on her couch while wiggling her toes.

“You’ve got good timing, I got home fifteen minutes ago and just got done showering,” the blonde agent laughed, and she loved hearing Kara laughing as it gave her a nice floating feeling. 

“Oh, I realized I’ve never been to your place, we should fix that one day,” she said while thinking about what Kara’s place looked like.

“It’s not as nice as yours,” the blonde agreed and there was a hint of sadness in her voice.

“Oh, I got an idea, Brainy upgraded the encryption software on phone and said this should work, give me a second,” Kara then said sounding a bit perkier and a few seconds later a request for a video call came through.

“You sure it’s safe?” she asked with her finger hovering over the accept button on her phone.

“Totally, it’s Brainy approved and tested,” the blonde chirped and that was good enough for her, so she hit accept.

“Let me give you the grand tour!” the blonde declared with her face filling the screen and she was smiling from ear to ear with her golden hair still damp and unruly. 

The guess as to what the blonde was wearing had been way off, however, instead of the imaging jeans and t-shirt she saw that Kara only wore a white towel before she was greeted by the sight of the blonde’s small but tidy-looking one-bedroom apartment.

“This is my view, I love looking at the stars,” the blonde explained showing of the large windows and a telescope pointing out towards the night sky.

“Careful not to flash your neighbors in that towel,” she teased, and the blonde laughed again.

“If anyone goes through the effort of spying on me on the tenth floor, they’ve earned a look!” the blonde declared taking her over to a bookshelf that held several medals is in a glass case.

“Are those yours?” she asked and peered at the phone trying to make out the details of the various ribbons and medals 

“Yeah, I brought these out here after you asked about them. They’d been sitting in a box under my bed for so long, but I wanted you to see them someday,” the blonde explained opening the case and running her finger over the purple ribbon of one of the purple hearts.

“Thank you… for showing me,” she said softly as she sensed that showing her these medals was a big deal for the former soldier.

“I… used to hate these, you know,” the blonde admitted quietly and put the medal back into the glass case.

“Why?” she asked softly and wished the blonde would turn the camera around so she could see her face.

“They reminded me of my failures, my wounds, but when you were impressed by them and asked me about them…. well it started to change how I felt a little,” the blonde explained and again she wished that she could hug the woman through the phone.

“I…” she started and there was that word again, love, on the tip of her tongue but she stopped herself. “I think you’re my hero Kara,” she said while also true didn’t fully capture how she felt about the blonde.

“You’re the cheesiest ma’am, but you’re kind of my hero too,” the blonde replied sweetly and then the camera started moving again. 

“Oh, do I get to see the bedroom too?” she teased and was rewarded with that deep rich laugh of Kara’s.

“Of course!” the blonde declared and carried the phone towards the equally tidy bed, made up with white covers and hospital corners. 

“Looks regulation comfortable,” she joked and again Kara laughed while jumping onto the bed, so the camera shook before switching back to her face.

“Nice and firm, so what you want to talk about tonight?” the blonde asked looking at her with that adorable look she got on her face whenever she was relaxed.

“Well... I’ve been thinking, how many people do you think... you know... know about us, like the full details?” she asked and hoped she wasn’t coming off as too paranoid.

“Fewer than I’d like, don’t get me wrong but I spent years skulking around deserts, jungles, and mountains on missions that I can’t tell anyone about. Keeping those secrets is a cakewalk compared to not being able to tell everyone about us,” the blonde joked with a cute little frown on her face which in turn made her smile.

“That’s sweet in a secret agent kind of way, Maggie knows and so does my brother, you’d like him… I think,” she said while leaving out Alex Danvers since she didn’t know how much Kara’s sister actually knew.

“Damn, Lex Luthor knows who I am? Cool! On my side, James figured it out, and my mom knows,” the blonde replied looking surprised and that meant that four maybe five people were in the know. 

“What about your sister?” she asked with a raised eyebrow, trying to find a way around the promise she gave to the woman about their conversation not happening.

“Alex? Why, did she threaten you?” Kara asked with her voice rising slightly and her brows furrowing which made her wonder how the blonde agent had come to that conclusion.

“No, why would she threaten me?” she asked a bit shocked at the outburst from Kara on the subject.

“Alex can be very protective and she’s smart, like scary smart but also a bit paranoid,” the blonde agent whispered while holding the phone closer to her face and her shock gave way to a nervous giggle.

“Then if she asks, we’re friends, with lots of benefits,” she countered, and it was Kara’s turn to giggle and the way the blonde’s face lit up was a sight to behold.

“You’re cute when you giggle,” she said and smiled while wistfully wishing for Kara to be on the couch with her right now, but this was as close as they could probably get for a while.

“Thanks, but don’t tell anyone because it would totally screw up my aura,” the blonde agent begged in mock desperation.

“Oh, the bad-ass ex-seal with all the scars aura, I’m pretty sure that can take a bit of a pounding,” she said and then groaned at how that had sounded.

“You are offering ma’am?” Kara asked with a wink without missing a beat and she felt and saw herself blushing in the corner of her screen. 

“Now, who is being the worst?” she laughed and tried to suppress all the rather nice mental images her brain was throwing at her hard and fast. It wasn’t that phone sex, no with added video, with Kara was a bad thing but she was curious to learn more about the woman at the same time.

“You’re still the worst but tell me, how did the panic meeting with the suits and uniforms go?” the blonde asked letting her off the hook with a knowing smirk.

“They are barking up the wrong tree, but I think I managed to get them to look in the right direction for now,” she said and laid down on the couch holding the phone over her head.

“Blaming China or Russia?” the blonde asked with a thoughtful look on her face and she was again reminded that the woman was smart as a whip. 

“Of course, but I hit up some old friends in the private sector and got some good leads I’ll send it to the CIA when we’re done,” she said, and Kara gave her a proud smile.

“Looks like you’ve been hard at work, you have to remember to relax,” the blonde said after studying her face for a moment.

“Talking to you is very relaxing and I could look at you all night,” she said without thinking and that caused Kara to beam her brightest smile on the screen.

“Creepy, but adorable, you like what you see?” the blonde asked while giving her a wider view of herself wearing only a white fluffy towel and as hard as it was to stay on topic the blonde was sending all the signals right now so she was forced to give in.

“I love what I’m seeing,” she whispered and let herself take in Kara’s face and upper body, broad shoulders, strong arms, and those deep blue eyes.

“Want to see a bit more for being a good Secretary of State?” the blonde then teased her, and she could only nod her head dumbly. 

Kara Danvers was many things she’d come to realize over the past couple of months, brave, sneaky, impulsive and tender among other things but she was also discovering that Captain Kara Danvers could be a freaking tease! So, she was forced, yeah keep telling yourself that Luthor, to watch Kara slowly unwrap the towel revealing, well, almost everything. The blonde’s well-defined abs along with her strong arms that had held her in Paris. Teasingly one of Kara’s arms covered her perky breasts which she remembered rubbing against hers in Geneva and finally that pretty a mischievously smiling face framed by blonde hair filled her screen again.

There was also another factor at play here, from what Kara had told her, the blonde hadn’t opened up like this to anyone in years and with so many visible scars the fact Kara trusted her to this degree made her feel almost unworthy of the blonde’s affections.

“You know, I think you could pick me up and throw me over your shoulders with ease,” she said licking her lips at the sight before her.

“Believe me, I was tempted to do that in Paris when you decided to be all stubborn and brave, Love Dove,” the blonde giggled while keeping her arm over her breasts.

“Love Dove, now that’s a codename I could get used to,” she admitted and watched as Kara’s muscles moved when the blonde laughed.

“Can… can you take off that t-shirt for me?” the blonde asked shyly, and she grinned as she sat up on the couch. 

“Give me a second,” she said putting the phone down so she could pull off her t-shirt before picking up the phone to give Kara a full-frontal view of herself.

“Oorah!” the blonde gasped at the sight, which made her blush and then glance down at herself. Her pale skin was in stark contrast to Kara’s tan complexion and in polite terms she was quite a bit bustier than the blonde agent, something which the blonde had stated that she loved.

“If I knew what a breast lover you are, I’d worn my blouses differently,” she teased the blonde while playing with her left breast while shakily hold her phone.

“Please don’t! Being on duty with you is hard enough with your current dress code,” the blonde agent joked and carelessly let her arm slip down exposing herself. 

“Oh boy!” she muttered seeing the state of Kara’s breasts and more pointedly the blonde’s stiff nipples.

“So eloquent,” Kara laughed and panned the view downwards showing that she was completely nude on top of the bed’s white sheets. 

“Fuck…” she groaned at seeing Kara’s abs again, not to mention her smooth pussy and strong legs. During their little encounter in Geneva, she’d not seen the blonde fully, but now she was getting the full Kara experience. 

There were a few more scars on the blonde’s thighs and her knees were scuffed along with an scar on her calf from her injury in the cave, more evidence of Kara’s time in combat or simply a very aggressive exercise routine and a physically demanding job. Then her brain shorted out somewhat when the blonde started gently playing with herself. 

“Before I met you… I almost never did this but now I can’t stop…” the blonde admitted in a deep husky voice to which she could only watch and rub her thighs together.

“I’m such a bad influence I know…” she giggled and started kicking off her pajama bottoms along with her comfortable white cotton panties as she gave Kara the same view and then couldn’t help but laugh when the blonde dropped her phone with a loud yelp.

“Warn a girl! And wow!” the blonde laughed coming back into view while rubbing her cute nose while staring wide-eyed back her through the phone.

Only being able to work out when she found the time, she wasn’t nearly as great a shape as Kara, but she was proud of her body and the blonde’s reactions gave her a tingling ego boost. With Kara’s rapt attention on her, she let her hand slide down her pale stomach towards the small and trimmed dark triangle of hair between her legs

“Want to tell me what to do?” she offered playfully running her finger up and down her slit finding herself already getting moist.

“Push it in…” Kara almost growled over the phone and she could see that the blonde’s face was flushed, and her blue eyes were shining.

“Is that an order Captain…” she whispered, playing with herself and if Kara wanted to order her, she was happy to oblige the blonde former soldier.

“Yes…” the blonde drawled and the camera was shaking now as clear evidence that Kara was also touching herself.

“Your wish is my command, tell me what you want me to do,” she giggled and slipped one finger between her folds and let out a shaky little moan. 

“All the way in and out… slowly…” Kara instructed her with her breathing becoming heavier.

Slowly fingering herself with Kara watching she felt herself getting wetter and being instructed by the blonde agent felt somehow freeing while being a massive turn-on hearing Kara’s firm but breathy orders.

“Do two now… fuck I wish I could do that… I want to bend you over that couch and make you scream,” the blonde went on and she slowly pushed a second finger inside herself and moaned loudly.

“Kara….” she moaned and spread her legs while slowly fingering herself with squishy wet noises filling the air.

“Harder… curl up your fingers,” Kara almost growled at her and she closed her eyes as she started roughly pleasuring herself.

“Gods…” she moaned both from the tone of Kara’s voice and the flush of heat rising in her stomach. 

“You are so beautiful… faster Lena… do it for me,” the blonde moaned and opening her eyes she could see Kara staring at her through the screen with a look of utter adoration and arousal on her face.

Closing her legs around her hand she started bucking against it and struggled to keep her phone steady. All the while Kara instructing her what to do in that husky voice that grew shakier and shakier as the blonde touched herself too. 

“Not yet… hold back… a little longer…” Kara said barely managing to speak and forcing her to deny herself orgasm for a little while.

“Kara…. Please…” she begged as she felt her insides clamping down on her fingers now buried deep in her overheating pussy.

“Little… longer….” the blonde moaned and she could hear that Kara too was soaking wet.

“I… I.... can’t…” she almost whined and fought back against her own rising orgasm as her body tried to arch of the couch as Kara remotely teased her mercilessly.

“Scream… for me…” Kara finally moaned, and it felt like a supernova was going off between her legs and in her stomach.

“KARA!” she screamed, no roared, as she was allowed her orgasm and dropping the phone, she found herself bucking and thrashing on the couch. 

“Lena…” Kara softly moaned pushing herself over the edge, but she was only vaguely aware of it as her body was on fire at that moment.

When she came down from her high she found herself giggling like a mad-woman, fumbling around for her phone that had fallen between the cushion of the couch she kept laughing with hand on her chest where she could feel her heart beating fast. Then she heard Kara joining her in relieved laughter and she brought the phone back up to her face.

“My turn to give the orders now?” she asked with the innocent expression on her face she could muster and the shocked look on Kara’s face in return was priceless followed by a squeaky: "Yes ma'am!".

* * *

While Lena was busy remote exploring Kara’s body and being explored in return, in the mailroom of the State Department a letter addressed to Jess was being sorted and would find its way to the secretary's desk the following morning. Needless to say, things were about to go from bad to worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My grammar and spelling tools really hated this chapter for some reason, and like the last one, it's written in bits and pieces over the course of almost two weeks. I wish I had more time these days but that's life when you got to adult.


	10. Kara

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara takes center stage as Lena is abducted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suprise, I know this is a Lena story so far, but I think it's overdue we take a peek at this world's Kara Danvers a bit.

Smoke, gunfire, screaming and screeching wheels, just like that, in the span of little under sixty seconds the Secretary of State had been abducted. The security camera footage played on a loop on screens all around Kara and every so often she’d have to take a few deep breaths to stay mindful in the here and now. The sounds and sights gunfire no longer triggered her as they had once done, but it didn't hurt to be careful, dealing with post-traumatic stress was all about being mindful even though getting to that point had taken her years because like Clark often said, she could be that gosh darn stubborn sometimes. 

But what mattered was that Lena was gone, and it had happened on her watch, the Secretary of State had received a letter upon arriving at work and then on the way to a function at the Greek Embassy had been abducted with the agents guarding her neutralized and the Secretary driven off in an unmarked white van after putting up a serious fight. The raven-haired woman knew how to throw a punch judging from the footage and was not above kicking men in the groin either.

Now after pouring over the contents of the letter that had been found by the Secretary’s desk, she was questioning Lena’s staff trying to find out what had caused the kidnapping of the woman she’d been charged with protecting and was in the process of falling in love with. That was a lie she wasn't falling in love, she was pretty gosh-darned sure that she was in love with the infuriatingly smart green-eyed woman by this point, after all, you don't scale balconies at foreign hotels for a crush. 

“Did the Secretary at any point seem agitated this morning?” she asked looking up from the letter which contained the words _We know_ made up out of pasted newspaper clippings along with a phone number which had been tracked a burner phone and that had been a dead end. 

In front of her sat Maggie Sawyer, Lena’s, no the Secretary’s chief of staff, because she had to keep reminding herself that and she couldn’t let her feelings get the better of her right now, not like in Kabul. So, until she found Lena, she’d have to think of her as Secretary of State first and secret girlfriend second, but she was failing at that, badly again and again. 

“No more than usual Agent Danvers, Lena came in early in a good mood, went over her emails, took some phone calls and then headed for the luncheon at the Greek Embassy,” the woman, a former cop, answered with meticulous attention to detail but with a knowing look on her face.

This information confirmed what others had told her already and was pinned up on a whiteboard nearby. They’d set up a situation room in the basement of the State Department to coordinate the search for the Secretary and she had a dozen agents from the Diplomatic Service along with backup from the FBI on hand with many more out scouring for clues and leads. Above their heads, satellites were being brought into position, helicopters with thermal cameras were in the air and the President was getting ready to make an address once they couldn’t keep a lid on the story any longer, but they were no closer than they’d been two hours ago to finding the Secretary. 

“Thank you, one last thing, do you have any idea what this letter might mean?” she asked turning the letter around in its plastic sleeve to show it to the woman. This part was the hardest, she knew what it means but she had to follow protocol while keeping her relationship with Le... the Secretary under wraps.

Lena’s Chief of Staff looked at her and then at the letter before a moment of understanding passed between them and the woman shook her head. Maggie knew about them because Lena had told her that in no uncertain terms, but she knew that Maggie wouldn’t withhold vital information if she had any even if it meant outing them. 

“Thank you, that will be all and we’ll notify you as soon as we know something more about who abducted the Secretary,” she said trying to stay professional but she had to bite the inside of her cheek to fight back the urge to hug the woman. This was, after all, Lena’s oldest friend in front of her and she couldn’t do nearly as much as she wanted to reassure her that she’d find Lena.

“I read your file and if anyone can find her, it’s you, Agent Danvers,” the former cop turned chief of staff said as she rose to her feet and buttoned her jacket.

“I’ll do my best ma'am,” she said sharply also rising to her feet and offering the woman her hand in the only gesture she could extent right now.

“Calleme Maggie or Mags and for the record, we all love her and want her back,” Maggie Sawyer said quietly after a quick glance around the room while squeezing her hand tight and all she could do was give the woman a firm nod of acknowledgment.

With the Chief of Staff out of the room, she sat back down and stared at the piece of paper that had been found in Lena's trash bin. What did they know? Was it about her and Lena’s relationship? Or was it something darker? Having not known Lena, no damn it the Secretary, for that long, there was no telling what the woman, a Luthor, might have in her past she wasn’t aware of yet. Once she'd started seeing the Secretary, she'd checked in with Clark who lived in Metropolis where the Luthors had a reputation of being both philanthropists but also of being ruthless in business or if anyone crossed them.

It was her professional paranoia talking she had to remind herself, Lena was a good woman and with Brainy on the case too, where he'd not found anything dodgy about the woman's past. Now he was trying to track down any phone data that could help in the search. On top of him lending a helping hand, Oliver had offered to fly in and take part in any rescue mission she might come up with, and James and Barry both had to have been talked down from booking flights back home from Europe as well. Hell, even her sister had messaged her, not called but texted, of course.

_Hope you find her, call me if you need me_, the message from her adoptive sister had read and, with those words, it became clear as day at that Alex knew something about her relationship with Lena. Looking back at the letter she tried to focus, but before she could go over its scant contents with a fine-toothed comb again, her phone rang, and three letters appeared on the screen in a bold font spelling out **LEX**.

“This is Agent Danvers,” she stated firmly when answering it and a deep male voice carrying the same playfulness to it as Lena’s softer and sweeter voice answered.

“Agent Danvers, I’m glad to finally put a voice to a name, my name is Lex Luthor and I think we could help each other,” Lena’s older brother greeted her, and she hurriedly moved and found a quiet spot to talk.

“Is this line secure?” she hissed into the phone and felt the hairs on the back of her head rising as her special-operations training kicked in like it always did.

“I designed the phone you’re holding Agent Danvers, of course, it’s secure,” the elder Luthor sibling scoffed sounding downright offended.

“Fair point why are you calling me?” she asked and wandered out of the situation room for a bit more privacy.

“As I said, I think we can help each other. I have something for you, once Lena went missing certain protocols were activated and I think I have the answer to as why she was taken,” he explained and she felt her phone vibrating as two files, one audio and one video file, were sent to her.

“What is this?” she asked turning the phone to look at it the file names before stepping out of the situation room completely as someone brushed past. 

“That is a recording of the last call from Lena’s phone before she was snatched up and from the sound of it, it’s between her and one of the people that took her. The video file I sent is why I am contacting you directly,” he explained, and she could hear the familiar smirk in his voice she’d come to recognize from Lena.

“I… thank you…” was all she could say as she itched to go over the audio and finally get some solid clue as to what had happened.

“No need to thank me, we’re almost family as I see it, but I would review those files in private if I were you, Kara,” he said using her name to state how urgent that request was, and she fished her earbuds out of her pocket.

“I will... and... I hope to meet you someday,” she said genuinely thankful that he’d come through for her like this.

“That sounds like a great idea! In fact, I own this great little private island we should visit and you would love it. Only the best for my little sister and her girlfriend,” he laughed but she could hear he was using bravado to mask his worry.

“It’s a deal, sir and I will find her, I promise,” she said firmly and there was a pause before he spoke again.

“I believe you when you say that Agent Danvers and please it’s Lex, sir makes me sound way too respectable. Now go, check out what I sent you and then call me back and we can decide our next steps,” he said, and she could hear the sound of how him typing on a keyboard in the background.

“Very well… Lex, I’ll call you back soon,” she promised and hung up before saving the number under the title of LBB for Lena's Big Brother.

Needing a bit more privacy, she hurried to a nearby bathroom and locked herself in one of the stalls before playing back the audio of the last call between Lena, because she had given up trying to think of her as simply the Secretary, and presumably whoever may have abducted her. Noise crackled in her ears and then she heard Lena’s speaking to someone that was using some kind of device to electronically distort their voice.

“Who is this?” Lena’s voice demanded and she closed her eyes trying to picture the raven-haired woman’s face stern and unyielding with fiery green eyes yet so amazingly beautiful and flawless.

“Who we are doesn’t matter, we have proof of your affair and unless you do as we say it will be made public,” the garbled voice responded.

“I highly doubt that,” Lena replied with her voice unwavering and at the same time, she thought about where they could have been spotted together in any sort of compromising position.

“We have video evidence, check your messages,” the voice said and pausing the audio she checked the other file Lex had sent her.

It was a video taken from across the street of the hotel Lena had stayed in while in Geneva and showed a blonde figure climbing onto the balcony and then there was a time-lapse before the same figure departed. Fifteen minutes and thirty seconds to be exact.

“Fuck!” she cursed at herself for being so reckless, but she’d swept the perimeter and the surrounding streets herself before going in so how had they spotted her? Resuming the audio, she chewed on her thumb's fingernail while listening.

“That video doesn’t prove a thing, all I see is my friend playing a harmless prank on me,” Lena said, again without missing a beat. 

“And before you say anything else, let me make this perfectly clear that this is not a negotiation. Release that video and I’ll go in front of the nation, there I’ll say that my good if a bit impulsive friend was simply trying to cheer me up after a rough day surrounded by security and that sometimes you need cheering up in this line of work,” Lena went on her voice rising slightly with righteous anger.

“Then after that is done, I’ll personally track you down. It won’t be the FBI or the Diplomatic Security Service but me personally, with the backing of the entire Luthor fortune. Because you people seem to forget that I’m a Luthor and we don’t take kindly to threats against our loved ones or us. I will find you and I will destroy you, are we clear?” Lena finished with an edge to her voice that gave her goosebumps, in her dealings with the woman she’d always been diplomatic, sweet and yes sometimes flirty but never this aggressive and ruthless.

The audio ended with a click as the line went dead, this but a few things into perspective right away. The would-be blackmailers having failed at extorting Lena had thus resorted, maybe as a panicked response to Lena having bigger balls than them, to the abduction less than half an hour later. 

The fact that it had been their Plan B since Lena had clearly not caved to their demands was good because it meant it had been rushed and that left a potential trail they could follow. Checking her messages, she had one from Brainy telling her that he was still on it but with nothing to report and then calling Lex Luthor again, she waited for Lena’s brother to answer.

“How did you get that?” she asked right away when the man answered on the second ring. 

“Oh, I think we’re both better off with you not knowing that little fact, the big question is, is what are you going to do?” he asked and there was that similarity to Lena again, sister and brother were both smart and they knew it. 

“Noted, that audio wasn’t much to go on, but I’ll have my team work on it,” she said and squeezed her eyes shut trying to think. The longer she waited the more chance of Lena being hurt and that was something she couldn’t live with.

“I can help there too, I’ve got a LexCorp satellite almost in position and I’m working on finding her so as soon as I know you will know,” he said and she smiled, he seemed to be a good big brother that truly cared for Lena and that made her think of Alex and how strained their relationship had been of late..

“Thank you, sir… I mean Lex and I’ve got a friend who is working on the same thing, I can put you in contact with him,” she said and steadied her breathing while she ran over potential rescue scenarios because the thought of combat always raised her heartbeat.

“I know, your friend tried to hack the same systems as me earlier and with your permission, we can work together… I must say, you’ve got interesting friends Agent Danvers,” Lex against laughed, so much like Lena that it made her stomach clench in panic as to what the abductors could be doing with or to Lena right now.

“I’m all sorts of impressive but please do what you can to help Lena... but as an agent of the DS I can’t condone you taking independent action when it comes to her rescue,” she reminded him since he seemed so much like Lena that he might be planning his own rescue right now.

“I’m not going to do anything of the sort unless as a last resort. I saw the footage of you in action on the news, I’m simply planning on pointing you in the right direction and feeling sorry for whoever gets in your way,” he said with his voice going from amused to grim.

“They will be the ones feeling sorry alright,” she said gruffly without hesitation and clenched her fist and then relaxed it once her nails started digging into the palm of her hand.

“You… love my sister, don’t you?” he asked and there was a tenderness to his voice, too much like Lena’s for her to handle right now. Squeezing her eyes shut, visions of Lena flashed in her mind, that smirk, those red lips, Lena nude on the hotel bed and smiling sweetly clutching the little souvenir she'd given to her in Paris. Lena holding her in the elevator and how comfortable she felt when around the woman, something she'd not felt with anyone in years. Lena wasn't afraid of her or her scars, only accepting and understanding, so there was only one answer she could give. 

“I do…” she whispered and felt herself crying which wasn’t good, crying wouldn’t help Lena right now.

“It’s commendable that you two risk everything for each other like this and for what it's worth I think that she loves you too,” he said and again she wished he didn’t sound like Lena, well Lena with a deeper voice.

“Thank you... now please tell me you and Brainy have something for me?” she asked and sniffled before fixing her tie and checking her guns out of restlessness.

“Give me a second.... yes we might have a location, sending you the information in a moment and… shit go find a TV now!” he said but then shouted at her and she bolted from the stall.

Rushing into the situation room still with Lex on the line she saw a video of Lena, tied up, with a busted lip and a black eye playing on every TV and it made her blood boil. That same distorted voice from the phone call was speaking, demanding that the President undo the deals Lena had made on her European trip, intervene in the Asian situation and also fire the Lesbian of State for being an immoral whore and committing a sin. The speech the voice was giving was a garbled mess of paranoia mixed with miss-information and good old fashioned hatred, but despite everything all Lena didn't look bowed or broken in fact, she was staring straight into the camera in defiance.

“Lex give me that location, now!” she said with the entire room looking at her because she sounded furious but she didn't care.

“Sending it your way Agent Danvers, good hunting,” Lena’s brother said, and her phone buzzed.

“Alpha team you’re with me, we’ve got a beat on Dove’s location,” she ordered a group of agents who nodded and then she turned to the senior FBI agent in the room.

“I’m sending you information obtained by third parties I assume that under the circumstances we won’t have a problem with that?” she asked and the FBI agent on call and the man started to protest but backed down when she stared him down.

“Good, use it to find anyone else that could be behind the abduction and track them down,” she said and the FBI agent in charge again nodded.

“Local law enforcement has been notified and are securing a wide perimeter,” one of her agents reported and she started taking off her jacket.

“Suit up ladies, we roll out in five,” she said grabbing a bulletproof vest of a nearby rack and pulling it on. Lena’s captors would regret hurting her, they would scream, and they would beg and… no Lena wouldn’t want her to do that, she’d go in, rescue Lena and get out. Then they’d figure things out and it was time for them to stop playing around like teenagers. 

Marching ahead of her team towards a waiting line of vans in the underground parking garage, her phone rang again and it was Alex. Of course her sister would know what was going on since her adopted sister had a way of finding things out no matter how secret they were. It was a talent that served her well as the President’s Chief of Staff.

“I’m a bit busy Alex,” she said into her earpiece and checked her magazine before slamming it back into her sidearm.

“Only calling to wish you luck and… to tell you that I know…” her sister said in her usually measured voice.

“I know, she had all the hallmarks of an Alex big sister speech about her last time we spoke but I’ve got bigger problems then that right now, can we talk about this later?” she replied while speaking fast and filed into the van with her team.

“Alright… but be careful, please… I’ve only got one sister…” Alex said her voice breaking a little bit.

A moment of hesitation followed because for her sister to call out of the blue, was rare. Alex had always been there for her until one day she couldn’t be and one too many sleepless nights during her numerous injuries followed by her depression following her discharge had caused them to drift apart over the years. Now their relationship was cordial, limited to occasional texts and dinner at their parents' house. 

“I’ll be back with the Secretary and then all of us can have a long talk,” she said, and the van jolted as it rolled out.

"Alright, go be the hero, love you and see you soon,” her sister said with a slight catch in her voice and hung up on her. 

Checking her weapon again she shook her head, of course, Alex knew, probably knew from the moment she blurted out that she was kind of seeing some one while at dinner at Eliza’s shortly after meeting Lena for one of their not-quite dates. Kara Danvers, you are too fucking impulsive, her drill sergeant used to shout at her and he'd been right. Diving into a messy relationship with Lena had been impulsive but she'd felt drawn like a magnet to the woman and now she loved her. That was for later, however, first, she had to rescue Lena and then they could try to sort out the mess they’d made. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was playing around with doing a slightly shorter chapter here for a few reasons. It's easier to edit and grammar and spelling check which is the main reason, it gets updates out more often and also because there wasn't much story to cover here aside from introducing Kara a little as her own character.


	11. No Damsel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Putting her former training to good use Kara sets out to rescue Lena with a little bit of help from a certain bald big brother in Metropolis. 
> 
> Faces will get punched, pants will be darkened and there will be gunfire and admission of love!

Lex Luthor’s intel was good and, in the end, they hadn’t taken Lena far, a warehouse on the outskirts of the city but something about this felt off. There was no perimeter guard, the thermal imaging only suggested a dozen hostiles and why wouldn’t they have taken her further away? Kara looked through the scope of the assault rifle she’d grabbed and cursed under her breath. All of her training was flooding back to her and with it the memories of what she had done with that training. 

“What’s the plan ma’am?” one of the FBI spooks asked her and she got up, tightened her braid and dusted herself off.

“A dozen hostiles, I’ll take alpha team in the back and extract the Secretary, you open up negotiations from the front of the building to distract them, keep them talking until we get her out,” she said and checked the rifle over.

“Protocol states that…” the spook started protesting but she cocked the rifle and stared him down as she went through her field kit with practiced ease.

“The Secretary of State is being held hostage, agent, do you want to be the one that tells the President we got her killed because you wanted to try negotiating first?” she asked pulling out a pair of ballistic goggles and slipping them on, they still smelled like the desert.

She was bullying the poor man, she knew that but she didn’t have time to go through red-tape right now, she needed to get in and get Lena out while punching in a few faces along the way. Then she was going to take the raven-haired beauty to dinner with Alex and they were going to figure things out. 

“No ma’am,” the agent all but squeaked at her as she slipped on her old fingerless combat gloves before wiggling her fingers.

“Good, get into position agent, and wait for my signal on channel 13,” she said and pulled out a tube of black wax she used to draw on her war paint.

It had been years since she’d done this last, but it all came so naturally to her that it scared her, even though her scars ached in the damp air and the memories tried to come flooding back. The mountain village, the gunfire and the smell, the blood, and the screams. Oliver and James dragging her away before the airstrike came in, with her cursing them and then the explosions flattening the place. Snapping back to reality she drew black lines under her eyes and one down her chin. Time to become Captain Danvers again, the Girl of Steel, if only for this one time. 

“We’re ready ma’am,” one of the agents in full combat gear reported to her and she nodded at him. After going over the floor layout on a tablet she issued her orders and they got into position.

Crouched behind shipping containers she took a few breaths, being mindful of the here and now again and accepting the feelings that came with those memories. When she'd resisted therapy during her recovery and after the discharge, it had been Alex who convinced her to go and even though she hated it at the time, it did help in the long run. Enough thinking on the past, time to kick some ass and remind people not to mess with what was hers.

“You are a go agent,” she signaled the FBI agent she’d bullied into going along with her plan and she checked her gear over one last time. 

The FBI spooks did their job well, she had to give them credit for that, they rolled in with local law enforcement and blue and red lights blazing. The kidnappers panicked, which made it clear these were not professional, and the thermal imaging showed them rushing to the front of the warehouse. Leaving only four guards behind at what they assumed was the room Lena was being held. 

Signaling her team to move in she was the first to the door, a quick check for tripwires using a can of Silly String revealed that it was clear, and she motioned for one of her agents to open the lock. This wasn’t a raid. This was an extraction, so a level of stealth was required. The lock was drilled out and the door swung open as she took point, switching on her laser sights she made her way through the warehouse.

The first resistance they encountered was a guy in mismatched surplus gear nervously patrolling a corridor. Holding up her hand for her team to stop she slung her rifle across her back and crept up behind him when his back was turned. Grabbing the man, boy really, in a chokehold with one hand over his mouth he gave a muffled scream until she tightened her grip, he started kicking his legs and tried to claw at her arms but she ignored the pain and drove his face into a nearby wall to knock him out. 

Dragging the limp body out of the way she signaled her team to follow, in her ear she could hear the FBI negotiating. The kidnappers’ demands were still the same, almost like they were reading them from a script and their leader's voice was shaky. Special Operations wasn’t about going in guns blazing, that’s the mistake a lot of people made when they found out she was a former Seal and she always had to remind them that a lot of the work was quiet and quick.

According to the layouts, the room where they were keeping Lena was up ahead. According to the thermal intel, there was one guard on patrol, two guards outside the room and with the remaining heat signal inside being Lena. But a crackle in her ear brought news that some of the kidnappers were starting to panic, and demanding money, helicopters, and safe passage. 

“We need to move,” she whispered and picked up the pace, the other guard on patrol was dealt with, this time by a sharp blow across the back of the head with the butt of her rifle. That left the two outside the door and she'd have Lena in her arms again. 

“Flashbang,” she ordered, and a member of her team stepped forward and she counted down from three silently before the flashbang grenade was rolled out.

Looking away she waited for the familiar bang and a flash of light, then taking the lead she rushed them, one of them raised his weapon so she shot him in the shoulder and then suppressing a battle-cry, she bashed the other one across the face with a stiff right hook.

Kicking the door down expecting to find Lena, but instead, she saw a scared-looking kid of maybe nineteen or twenty there in her stead looking at her with wide and terrified eyes. There was a camera on a tripod and a laptop nearby which had been used to broadcast the video earlier and she felt her blood beginning to boil. 

This wasn't the plan, fuck this wasn't the plan at all, save the girl, hug the girl, carry her out like a big dumbass hero!

“Where is she?” she demanded, yanking off her goggles as she grabbed the kid by the front of his army surplus web gear and hauled him out of the chair.

“Please don’t hurt me!” the kid begged as she slammed his back against a nearby wall with enough force to knock a few boxes of their shelves.

“Wrong answer!” she growled and holding him against the wall with her arm against his chest as she pulled her side-arm on him. 

“I don’t know! They took her away, the guys who paid us!” he wailed, and she could smell it as he pissed himself out of fear when she pressed the muzzle of her weapon against his temple.

“Who?” she demanded and twisted the metal of her weapon against his skin.

“I don’t know! They sent us the money and the video, told us that it was our chance to take the bitch down and…” she cut him off when she kneed him in the groin, causing him to fall to his knees in pain.

“Don’t call her that!” she growled and pulled him to his feet again and shook him for good measure.

“Last chance, when did they take the Secretary?” she asked and raised her sidearm again as she cocked the hammer.

“Aahh! They took her, maybe twenty minutes ago, black car… tinted windows...” he stammered, and she dropped him with a frustrated growl.

“Call off the negations, the Secretary isn’t here,” she said into her earpiece and kicked the chair Lena had been tied too so hard that it broke and then she stomped on it for good measure.

“What now ma’am?” one of her agents asked and she had no idea, she had no intel only a timeframe and Lena still in danger.

“Get birds in the sky, the team that took the Secretary can’t have gone far, round up these… idiots and interrogate them,” she said after running her hands down her face. 

“Yes ma’am,” the agent said, and her team sprang into action. It didn’t take them long to clear out the rest of the warehouse with the FBI coming in the front.

These guys were online wannabes playing soldier and she barely had to fire a shot. One actually managed to drop his magazine from his rifle while another tried to shoot her with the safety still on. Their panicked fumbling did, however, give her the chance to engage them in hand to hand combat and it was cathartic as hell to punch whoever got in her way and even roundhouse kicking one through a window. 

When her team met up with the FBI agents she was busy beating the hell out of the last couple of would-be bad guys, it wasn't until she felt a hand on her shoulder that she stopped punching the man she was straddling.

"I think he's beaten," the FBI spook almost chuckled and she got to her feet while wiping the blood from her hands.

"This was a decoy op, try to wake him up and get something out of him," she said and brushed past him limping slightly because her left knee hurt like hell again.

With the clean-up underway she sat down on a shipping crate, popped a handful of anti-inflammatory pills, and pulled out her phone. Time to call in with some bad news and she dialed Lex’s number hoping for a new lead. They’d been played and she couldn’t shake the feeling that this had something to do with the investigation Lena had been working on last night based on what limited intel the pants-pisser had given.

“Have you got her?” Lex asked the moment he answered, and she could hear how worried he was for his sister.

“No, it was a decoy. They moved her, before we arrived, in a black sedan with out of state plates. That is all they could give us, well before they pissed themselves and I punched their teeth in,” she said and lean backward to look up into the sky while cracking the knuckles on her right hand.

“I’ll get some satellites into position and pull up any security camera footage,” he said right away, and she wanted to scream in frustration. 

“They were tricked into doing this by someone Lex, they’re just a bunch of online wannabes who can barely shoot a gun,” she said with a sigh and made sure to text Maggie Sawyer so Lena’s friend wouldn’t be left out of the loop.

“It would appear someone is weaponizing online hate groups to attack my sister,” Lex concluded, and it did make a perverse sort of sense.

“I’m going to kill them,” she growled and didn’t even regret it, killing was easy, quick and something she was good at.

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that Agent Danvers, but I’ve been going through Lena’s laptop data and she was looking into some stolen rocketry tech last night. This is all too neat and tidy for my liking,” Lex diplomatically replied to her growling and her phone vibrated as he sent her more information.

“Got a lead for me?” she asked unable to hide her frustration and checked her phone, it was four potential paths leading away from the warehouse.

“Leads, plural, I’m afraid, best I can do on short notice,” he apologized sounding frustrated as well and she couldn’t blame him.

“Thanks Lex, I’ll have Brainy run some numbers real quick to narrow it down,” she said, mostly out of habit, and stood up and looked around for a car she could take.

“Already ran it by him and that's the best we could do, it’s down to luck now I’m afraid,” Lex apologized, and she started marching towards a nearby unattended police motorcycle.

“Roger that... about to do something stupid so talk later,” she acknowledged, swinging her leg over the bike and revering the engine.

The FBI and local law enforcement were busy rounding up the puppet kidnappers with her team assisting which meant nobody was paying attention to what she was doing. Time to go AWOL. 

They still had Lena and if she took a group of people with her it would alert them and they might move her again. Well aware that this would get her fired, she didn’t care, because she wasn’t planning on losing Lena Luthor at this point.

You’re too impulsive Danvers! The voice of her drill sergeant rang in her head again as she checked the map and picked route number three. It’s the route she’d have picked back in the day if she was extracting someone willingly or not.

With the sun setting behind her, she revered the bike’s engine and the flashing lights of the operation around the warehouse faded behind her. The map app’s voice in her ear guiding her way and she kept hoping that Lena had left some kind of trail or any hint at all.

The cold wind hitting her face, all she could think about was Lena and how losing the raven-haired woman wasn't an option. Blinking back the tears she gunned the bike and after driving for what felt like hours with no clues in sight and hope fading, her phone rang.

“Kara…” it was Lena! Whispering hurriedly but not sounding frightened, because very few things seemed to scare the woman she was pretty damn sure she loved at this point. 

“Lena! Where are you?” she asked trying not to shout, pulling the bike to the curb of the road and looking around in some vain hope that the raven-haired woman was nearby.

“Can’t talk, follow GPS point… I love you…” Lena whispered, and her phone vibrated and before she could reply the signal cut out. 

“Lena! Lena! Fuck!” she shouted into the phone and checked the coordinates her genius girlfriend had sent her. 

Revving the engine of her borrowed motorcycle again she headed for the location, it was an office tower still under construction. Making one last call she checked her two sidearms and her vest and then called Lex back.

“Found her, if I don’t contact you in twenty minutes call in the cavalry,” she ordered him, but of course, Lena’s brother wasn’t going to take orders easily.

“Hold on there, uploading a new app to your phone that might help out,” he said and again her phone vibrated. 

“It’s scary when you do that....” she muttered checking the app out, it was the floor plans of the tower with potential guard patrol paths laid out.

“Predictive AI, it might help,” he explained, and she had to admit the man knew his stuff. 

“Thank you,” she said and strapped her phone to her forearm so she could check it easily.

“Godspeed Kara,” he said, and she slipped into the back of the still under construction office tower.

Dual wielding her pistols, something Olive would give her shit for if he knew about it, she carefully made her way to the elevator but finding it without power she went for the stairwell. Why would they bring Lena here? She wondered and checked the floorplans Lex had sent her via his little app. The top floor seemed to be partly finished, was this another rushed plan by Lena’s enemies or was she walking into another trap. 

Trying to run silently up the stairs she felt her breathing becoming more labored while at the same time that piece of titanium in her leg was starting to hurt but biting down hard, she willed herself forward. Stupid body, stupid scars and too many broken bones over the years. Then she remembered what Lena had told her, I think you’re my hero Kara and she could hear that husky voice clear as day in her head. She’d been called a hero many times but only when the green-eyed and brilliant woman had said those words, she’d believed them. Lena made her feel like a hero and not a beaten-up veteran with too many issues. 

Hearing a loud foot-steps, she flattened herself against a wall and looked around the corner carefully. Two black suit-wearing men were running away from her position and that either meant that she’d been made or that something worse was up. Taking one deep breath she, she closed and opened her eyes before springing into action.

Shooting a man in the back wasn’t honorable, but this situation didn’t call for honor, so she dropped the first one with two rounds to the right shoulder. When the other one spun around she shot him in the arm forcing him to drop his weapon and then in the knee for good measure. Running up she finished him off with a swift kick to the face and then did the same to the other one. 

Rolling one of them over she recognized them as military contractors and she spat on the floor. Checking Lex’s app, the AI was predicting that there were at least four more to take care of and she started heading in the direction they’d been rushing. A hail of bullets greeted her when she rounded the next corner and she had to dive for cover. Taking another deep breath, she counted the shots fired.

“4... 3… 2…. 1…” she counted down and rolled back into the corridor when the last bullet, by her account, had been fired. 

“Shit!” she cursed when she realized she’d counted wrong and a bullet grazed her arm, but her aim was better, and the shooter’s head exploded into red mist when she pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The other suit turned and ran, so much for honor among thieves, but she tapped him in the shoulder, and he stumbled forward with a yell. Then a loud crash from a nearby room followed by the lights dimming caused her to sprint over his fallen form and she crashed into the room where Lena was, hopefully, being held. 

Freezing for a moment after bursting into the room with both weapons drawn, because she couldn’t quite process what was going on. One suit-wearing military contractor was shaking on the ground, with the other one pointing his gun at Lena who was holding what looked like a TV remote that had been modified into what appeared to be a make-shift taser drawing power from a jury-rigged power socket. Behind the raven-haired woman was a partly dismantled TV and from the looks of it, Lena had hacked the TV to get the message out to her. 

“Drop it!” she shouted at the man holding Lena at gunpoint but when he spun to take aim at her, Lena lunged forward and tasered him in the back with her green-eyes aflame and the man screamed in pain.

“Who is the bitch now!” Lena roared when she tased him again until her makeshift weapon came unplugged from the wall in the scuffle and then she started beating him in the face with it repeatedly. 

Staring at the raven-haired woman she was taken back, still sporting a split lip and black eye with her navy blue pantsuit torn at the shoulder Lena looked like she’d been through the wars, but was in no way cowed, and it took her a second to spring into action. Pulling Lena off her kidnapper before she beat his brains out, the raven-haired woman dropped her make-shift weapon and hugged her hard.

“I got you, are you safe, you are okay, did they hurt you?” she asked and started patting down the shorter woman do check for any injuries.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, they punched me in the face when I fought back outside the Greek Embassy that’s about it,” Lena said as she calmed down and truth be told the woman was incredibly calm given her situation, the violent tasing and beatdown she'd handed out notwithstanding of course. 

“Does anything upset you?” she asked finding herself laughing and pulled back a bit to look at Lena’s face. Licking her thumb, she wiped some of the blood away from the corner of the woman’s full lips. 

“You being shot fucking does!” Lena gasped seeing the graze on her arm from the bullet that she’d miscounted.

“Fleshwound, I’ll be fine,” she shrugged and the look in Lena’s green eyes made her gulp, the woman wasn’t happy at all with the fact she’d been grazed.

“Rule four of our relationship, no getting shot!” Lena exclaimed and then kissed her hard on the lips.

Tingly feelings started spreading up from her toes towards her stomach, kissing Lena Luthor was unlike anything else she'd ever experienced and she wanted to hold the petite raven-haired beauty and never let her go.

“Yes ma’am,” she said once Lena let her go again and she wanted to touch her lips because they tingled. 

“Now, let’s find out who was behind this,” Lena said and walked on her red heels over to the tased man on the floor while she kept her gun on him in case he got any ideas. 

“Now, as I told you on the phone, I’m a Luthor,” Lena said and put her heel against the man’s crotch and pushed down slightly.

“Please…” he groaned, and Lena was at once terrifying and glorious to behold, even with dried blood on the corner of her mouth and looking disheveled the woman exuded power.

“Who… gave… the order?” Lena asked twisting her heel slowly and the man screamed.

“Consortium… of weapons manufacturers and contractors… no names used... you were rocking the boat too much,” the man groaned as Lena lifted her foot and glared down at him before kicking him in the face.

“Fuck!” Lena cursed and started pacing, she understood well how the woman was feeling, she was used to taking on faceless enemies after all but before she could comfort the raven-haired beauty her phone started beeping. The twenty minutes were up and the cavalry would be coming soon.

“Lena, we can work that out later Love Dove, let's get you out of here… and by the way… I love...” she started saying that she loved her and that no matter what would happen now they’d be together somehow.

Then there was a gunshot followed by that familiar but searing pain in her back despite her vest and she remembered how she hated hollow point bullets. Stumbling to turn around to face her attacker, but instead, she felt Lena rushing past her, grabbing one of her guns and unloading the entire clip while screaming in rage. The last thing she remembered was hitting the floor and Lena still screaming her name as special forces burst into the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the writer bitches about chapter length and stuff time boys and girls. As I've said before I've kind of started taking the chapters down in length a bit, from roughly 5000-6500 words down to 3500-4500 words. It makes a huge difference I feel because I can review each chapter more often before posting it and I'm kind of a paranoid freak when it comes to editing and checking the spelling even though I know mine can be horrendous no matter how often I check things over. It also comes down to time, it takes a lot longer to read and reread 6000 words than 3500. Blah, blah, writing fan fiction as you push 40 is hard, blah blah blah. 
> 
> On that topic, I'm curious about how other writers deal with the horrors of editing, so if you got any horror stories to share please do so, if only to let me know that I'm not alone in this or maybe as my better-half likes to say I'm just whining. Story-wise I'm aiming to wrap this up in the next few chapters, and hopefully steer our idiots to a happy-ish ending, before my work/life balance goes to hell in a handbasket again next month.


	12. Luthor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following her rescue, Lena sets to work making sure those responsible are made to pay, while also making sure Kara recovers from her injury and the actions she took to save her. But that means becoming someone she'd promised herself she'd never become again. A Luthor.

Lena sat at Kara’s bedside while the blonde agent that she loved and who had heroically and stupidly come to her rescue, lay motionless on the white hospital bed with her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm to the beeping of a heart monitor. 

Once the other agents had arrived following her shooting Kara’s attacker with what Maggie had called an impressive grouping and gusto, she’d found out that Kara had gone off on her own to find her with Lex’s help. This complicated things, but she was working on a solution to that, it was going to be mildly unpleasant, but she wasn't going to let that get in the way of things, no matter how much it hurt her to the core. 

It had been two days since her rescue and watching Kara being rushed off to the hospital while bleeding, but not every minute had been spent at Kara’s bedside however even though she'd wanted to, in fact, this was only her second visit. Instead to keep herself occupied she had, with Lex’s and the enigmatic Brainy’s help, set about dismantling several companies from the inside. Even though her kidnappers hadn’t given up much information, it had been enough for her to go on and now those responsible were feeling the wrath of an enraged scion of the Luthor family. 

It frustrated her to no end, however, that there was no one person behind the attacks on her that she could find, tie to a chair and slap across the face. Rather it had been a faceless cabal of special interests that had manipulated some online trolls into acting as their puppets with the end goal of blackmailing her into compliance with their agendas. It was all terribly pedestrian in hindsight really.

So being maybe a tiny bit petty, she’d gone after all of them, while Kara was still being operated on and stitched back up, she’d hacked and leaked the dirty secrets of a half a dozen weapons manufacturers to the press while waiting outside the operating room. Then once Kara was out of surgery, quite a few military contractors had found their off-shore accounts mysteriously emptied and the funds given to various charities in the night. 

Just as she’d hacked the Smart TV where she was being held to get a message out to Kara and turned the TV remote into a crude taser, she’d put her mind to work at punishing those who’d sought to hurt her and Kara. Sometimes doing good meant doing dirty work and she had no qualms about that right now. It was time to be a goddamn Luthor again. After all, the only reason she needed was lying in front of her hooked up to monitors and IVs. For so long she'd resisted slipping into old habits, she'd never meant to go back to being a Luthor, but it was for a good cause, this time. It was for Kara she kept telling herself. 

On the TV hanging on the wall, the news was playing with the sound set to low and a screen capture of her bruised face staring down the camera after she’d been abducted took up half of the screen as a pretty blonde news anchor sang her praises. In the aftermath of her rescue, someone had leaked parts of the phone call where they’d tried to blackmail her using the video footage of Kara climbing her balcony, it hadn’t been her or Lex, but it portrayed her as a hard-ass who didn’t back down, so she chalked it up as a win. A Luthor didn’t let a good piece of PR, even unexpected, go to waste after all. 

Touching up the concealer to her black-eye while using her phone’s camera as a makeshift mirror before checking her feeds, she smiled grimly as the stock prices of her targets kept tumbling and read reports that quite a few CEOs were trying to flee the country but were ultimately met either outside their homes, offices or at the airport, by either FBI agents, DS agents or in some cases Kara’s friends, eager to get retribution for their injured comrade. Reaching out she took hold of Kara’s pale hand and squeezed it hoping for a squeeze back. 

“Wake up... I can’t do this without you... I don't want to do this without you...” she said softly and brushed a lock of blonde hair out of Kara’s peaceful looking face and then leaned in to kiss her forehead.

“Oh, she’ll wake up when she’s ready, she always does,” Alex Danvers said stepping into the room in wearing her usual form-fitting grey dress but without her omnipresent tablet and she glared at the woman before continuing with the kiss to the blonde's forehead.

“Yeah, I can see why she likes you,” the President's Chief of Staff stated with a chuckle in response to her glare and sat down in an empty chair while motioning for her to sit.

“Come to dismiss me, Danvers?” she asked flat out as she sat back down after checking Kara’s pulse.

“Why would I do that? Hell, how could I do that? I’m here solely to check up on my incredibly brave and stupid sister,” Alex replied pointing to the news on the TV without so much as a hint of malice and again offered her to sit down with a gesture. 

“Because I’ve been dating your sister in secret and covered it up, pretty sure that counts as a good enough of a reason,” she reminded Kara’s sister, not caring who heard anymore and she was ready to be fired.

If the last two days had shown her anything, it was that she could go back to being who she once was as long as she had Kara by her side. She loved being Secretary of State, had done so much good in such short a time, but if going back to LexCorp and being a Luthor again was what it took to be with Kara, then so be it.

“You think I am that petty? I care about results, not who is sleeping with my sister and you get results Secretary Luthor,” Alex said and cracked a thin smile as she wondered if the brunette was a mind-reader.

“Does President Jones share your views on this?” she asked and raised an eyebrow at the older Danvers sister.

“He cares about results as well and with the media portraying you as no-nonsense bitch without fear after someone leaked parts of your phone call with your kidnappers, well... we can’t very well fire you, now can we?” Alex asked her back and then it clicked.

“You…” she asked slowly as realization, no doubt, dawned on her face and then Kara's big sister gave her a quick conspiratorial wink.

“We’ve invested a lot in you… Kara has invested a lot in you too and she believes in you, so it seemed a shame to let it all go to waste. But my sister took some rather drastic actions that we need to address, but that can wait until she’s up and about,” Alex answered and then with a sigh looked over at her sister’s sleeping body.

“She does that sometimes, I think it's a side effect of her being as brave and stubborn as she is,” she said but couldn’t help but chuckle, the blonde was incredibly reckless and brave at times and it was a part of what drew her to the woman. But it also scared her that the blonde kept getting hurt on her account and that had to stop.

“You took some rather drastic actions as well, I read the after-action reports and did you really turn a TV remote into a taser?” the short-haired brunette asked her with no small amount of disbelief in her voice while sounding almost impressed.

“I knew Kara was coming, but I guess I’m not very good at being a damsel in distress,” she shrugged and when the older Danvers kept looking at her in disbelief, she smirked deciding to show off a little bit. 

“Fine, the TV’s operating system was easy enough to hack when they left me alone and turning it into a rudimentary Voice over IP device was something, I could have done in my sleep back in college. The taser was a hail Mary pass of an idea, I do admit, but it worked,” she explained how she’d put her engineering degree and considerable genius to good work to facilitate her own rescue.

“And your shooting skills?” the older Danvers asked, and she looked down at her hand. The military contractor who had shot Kara in the back had felt her unbridled wrath when she’d grabbed Kara’s gun. Another Luthor trait she’d so long suppressed, righteous fury. 

“I used to work in weapon’s development at LexCorp, and I was so angry… when I saw Kara getting shot I…” she started but her voice failed her and to her surprise, Alex put an arm around her. 

“Listen to me, there is nobody on the planet that understand how you feel right now better than I do,” Alex said firmly and squeezed her shoulder with a catch in her throat. 

“Why... why are you Danvers girls... so god damn understanding,” she sniffled and extracted herself from the President’s Chief of Staff’s hold before anyone would see them both being massive softies which would totally ruin their image.

“Blame our mom for that part. Now, when Kara wakes up, she’s going to be grumpy and you better be prepared for that. She hates to lose and will view this as a failure even though she rescued you,” Alex explained to her and she quickly looked over to Kara and then back to the brunette before nodding.

“What about her going all John Mcclane to save me? We can’t sweep that under the rug, can we?” she asked, and it had been nagging at her, Kara had broken protocol and gone out on her own to find her. 

“Oh, you will fit right in, because every Christmas we watch Die Hard together,” Alex laughed and that fact the woman said that gave her no small amount of hope for the future. Christmas with the Danvers, she could see herself doing that right now if she closed her eyes and thought about it hard enough.

“But don't worry, I’ll clean up that mess, somehow,” she said a bit more seriously and before she could ask how the Chief of Staff planned on doing that a knock on the door interrupted them.

“It’s time to go,” it was Maggie who gave Alex a quick nod of acknowledgment which the brunette returned, and she wondered what those two had gotten up to in the past.

“Go, I’ll stay with her and good luck with your interview, maybe it could be useful to both of you,” Alex told her, and she gave the woman a grateful smile before joining Maggie.

“Bonding with your future sister-in-law?” her friend asked when the increased security detail fell in line around them.

“In a manner of speaking, how are things at the State Department?” she asked and buttoned up her jacket. The navy-blue pantsuit with red heels which she’d worn when she’d been abducted had become her unofficial uniform in the past couple of days. 

“We’re holding down the fort, using the goodwill you’ve garnered to get stuff done as we planned, how is Agent Danvers?” Maggie asked as they got into the black SUV after her guards squeezed them past the media outside the hospital.

The official story was that she was at the hospital for check-ups and to give her thanks to those injured in her rescue. Granted Kara was the only one seriously injured, but it gave her enough cover for her visit to check up on the sleeping blonde. 

“The doctors say that Kara will be fine, wish she’d wake up though,” she said purposefully using Kara’s name instead of her title or surname

“From what I saw when I talked to her, she’s a tough one, she’ll be fine, but you need to be ready. This interview is an important one," Maggie tried to reassure her and squeezed her hand.

“Thank you, how are we on that aid package?” she asked wanting to get back to doing good, if the President wasn’t going to fire her at least she could do was follow her mission statement, she owed Kara that much all things considered.

“We have the votes, right now nobody will say no to the Secretary of Steel,” Maggie half-laughed and she couldn’t help but join in.

“Is that what they’re calling me now?” she asked having missed that particular nickname given to her by the media over the past couple of days.

“...I will find you and destroy you, are we clear!” Maggie laughed while doing her best Liam Neeson impression.

“You know, they used to call Kara the Girl of Steel when she served,” she said proudly after getting her laughter under control after her friend’s horrible attempt at an Irish accent.

"And now she might never get to serve again..." she added sadly and started wringing her hands with worry. 

“They can’t kick her out of the Service, can they? I mean she went off the grid, but she fucking saved you LL,” Maggie asked upon seeing her worry, and she shrugged because as much pull as she had right now, she couldn’t risk interfering too much in Kara’s affairs either. But she had to do something to help her girlfriend.

“Danvers said she’d figure things out, but I wish there was something I could do…” she trailed off and the wheels started turning in her head. Alex had been giving her a hint and damn it the woman was devious, yeah, they could maybe even become friends one day she decided. 

“Oh, I hate when you get that look!” Maggie sighed and she flashed a quick grin at her friend.

“Don’t you trust me, Mags?” she asked with her best innocent expression but only let Maggie to letting out a long groan. 

“Why did I leave Metropolis with you again?” the ex-cop asked, before burying her face in her hands and she patted her friend on the shoulder.

“I take you to all the best parties and life is never dull with me?” she suggested and her friend looked up at her with a dubious look on her face, but even if Alex Danvers had a plan she just might have a better one to make sure Kara would come out of this with the credit she deserved.

* * *

The studio lights were hot, and she crossed her legs after taking a sip of water which left a red lipstick stain on the glass as she sat across from the Queen of all Media herself, the one and only Cat Grant. This was her first interview following her ordeal, as the media was labeling it, and she wasn’t above taking this opportunity and running with it in the name of doing good, but there had been a slight change of plans based on Alex’s little hint. 

They’d finished talking about her plans for the future, going through her past and education, even touching upon her much-vaunted sexuality but only briefly. Now it was time for the grand finale of her interview, her spilling the beans on her abduction. 

“So, tell me Madam Secretary, how did you get rescued?” Grant asked her and leaned in closer with the practiced ease of a seasoned interviewer.

“Please call me Lena, and…” she started but paused for dramatic effect and batted her eyelashes. 

“It’s alright, please take your time,” Grant assured her but a part of her was also sure that the woman knew exactly what she was doing.

“After… they moved me, it was one of the agents on my security detail, she went above and beyond the call of duty and without her, some might say reckless, course of action I might not be sitting here today,” she said in a hushed tone of voice and brushed her fingers across her concealed blackeye.

“Are you at liberty to name this brave federal employee?” Grant asked clearly intrigued about who her hero was. 

Squaring her shoulders and looking straight down camera two, she took a deep breath and hoped Kara would forgive her for doing this. One more time using some of that Luthor magic, for Kara and their future. 

“The agent who saved me... is a good friend of mine and her name is Kara Danvers. She led the raid on the warehouse, I'm sure you have seen it all over the news and when that turned out to be a decoy she figured out where they’d taken me...” she started her story while dropping an admission of sorts about her relationship with Kara. This was about laying the groundwork for their future together. 

“Is it common for the Secretary of State to befriend a member of her security detail?” Grant asked and she had to give it to the woman she knew her stuff.

“When you’re with someone all the time and they are always around and looking out for you... it’s hard not to befriend that person. Kara helped me when I got this position… the first night on the job she talked me down and helped me adjust to having people following me around all the time,” she replied and everything she was saying was technically true.

“Sounds like she’s a good friend, please go on,” Grant said nodding her head and motioned for her keep talking since this was ratings gold and the woman knew it.

“She’s been the best, saving me when I was attacked earlier this year, making sure I get my late-night pizza when I need it and now rescuing me from god knows what fate,” she said allowing herself to smile, it was the smile that she always got on her face when she was around Kara and again everything she was gushing about was absolutely true. 

“Well I wish I had a friend like that, and it sounds like you got your very own superhero, Lena,” Grant said with a laugh and she nodded her head.

“She’s more than a hero, she’s the very best our nation’s armed forces have to offer, and we’ll share a slice of pizza together as soon as she’s out of the hospital,” she laughed and couldn’t keep the smile off her face now. Admitting things about her and Kara was freeing, even though she was being very much a Luthor about it.

“We’re almost out of time but thank you for sharing your story Lena and I’d like to wish Kara Danvers a speedy recovery, from what you’ve told us she’s a brave and kind woman in equal measure and a credit to the service,” Cat Grant concluded and she wanted to do a little fist pump at how well this had gone.

“My pleasure Miss Grant, and thank you for having me on,” she said as Grant turned to the camera.

"We've been talking to Secretary of State Lena Luthor, one of the finest public servants this country has produced and we wish you a good night," the media mogul said and the studio lights dimmed and a director shouted cut.

“You are good, you’re very good,” Grant said when their microphones were off, and she gave her a blank look. Yes, the woman was much smarter than she led on with her on-screen persona.

“I have no idea what you mean Miss Grant,” she said innocently and stood up before buttoning her navy-blue jacket. 

“No, of course, you don’t, but I look forward to having you both on my show in a year or two, you and Miss Danvers,” the media mogul chuckled and gave her a wink. Why was everyone winking at her today? 

“Maybe you will, and for the record, it’s Captain Danvers,” she said and smiled winsomely back at the woman as Maggie came to fetch her for her next appointment along with her security detail. 

“I’ll make sure to remember that,” Grant promised her and offered a hand for her to shake. 

“And I think… we’re going to get along just fine in the future,” she said and shook the offered hand before her schedule demanded that she head off again. 

“That was cold and calculative Luthor,” Maggie whispered as they headed back to the motorcade and her friend hadn’t called her Luthor in years. It kind of stung.

“You haven’t called me that in ages,” she said as they once again slid into the SUV and the door closed behind them.

“You haven’t acted like a Luthor in ages either. But I understand why you are doing it, it’s for her isn’t it?” her friend asked and gave her a concerned look. Of course, Maggie would have figured out what she was doing. 

“I… know I said I wasn’t going to play politics and when we left Metropolis I was leaving that part of me behind, but Kara deserves a happy ending and if that costs a piece of my self-respect to get her that, then so be it,” she replied and allowed herself to slump down slightly as the weight of it all started to sink in.

The weight of being a Luthor again, the fear for Kara she'd buried over the past two days so she could get things done, it was all too much and in her moment of doubt, she all she wanted to do was cry and thankfully Maggie was there for her.

“I hope this girl is worth it then and you're worth it too because you both deserve a happy ending,” Maggie said and after activating the privacy screen her friend gave her a long hug while rubbing her back 

“I can’t lose her Mags, I can’t, and she’s stuck in that hospital bed and… I love her… and… if I have to be the old me to make it all better...” her words descended into pitiful little sobs as Maggie kept comforting her the best she could.

“There, there, it will be alright Little Luthor, you’ll get the girl and your soul is safe don't worry,” Maggie promised her. She had done all she could for Kara, now all she could do was hope that she’d done enough and that Alex Danvers would do her part, whatever that would be. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the start of the story, Lena's mission statement was "to do good" and to leave the corporate life she'd lived in Metropolis behind and not to play politics. But thanks to being stupid in love with Kara she's risking her soul in a way to make sure that Kara gets the happiness she deserves. If that doesn't show how far she's willing to go then I don't know what will and I hope that came through. Yeah yeah you should never explain your story, but I wanted to point that out in case I didn't make it clear enough in the text.


	13. Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena and Kara both square up against the ghosts of their pasts as our two idiots decide, with a little bit of help from their older siblings to move forward with their lives after the abduction and rescue of Lena.

Kara was awake and apparently grumpy, Lena knew this thanks to some first-hand accounts from her now almost friend Alex Danvers, but she couldn’t go see the blonde and that sucked the big one. Because even though they were now officially friends in the eyes of the world, thanks to her subterfuge and Luthor-esque manipulation of her interview with Cat Grant, they weren’t officially dating, yet. Thus, her showing up at the hospital outside of visiting hours would raise too many questions. Chewing on a pen while sitting at her desk, she bit down on it too hard out of frustration and tasted ink which caused her to splutter and cough and, in the process, get ink all over her hand. 

Fumbling around for a tissue she went over her ever-present mental check-list. Relationship drama aside, the take-down of those who had wronged her was now well underway, companies lay in ruins and the message had been sent out loud and clear to those in the know. That message: You don’t fuck with Lena Luthor! But putting the Luthor genie back in the bottle was proving as difficult as she’d thought it would be. Because now, the guilt gnawed at her, she’d ruined several companies and the after-effects of her actions had to be dealt with. That meant more cold and calculative maneuvering behind the scenes, but she wasn’t sure her soul could take it.

Cleaning the blue ink of her chin and her hand the best she could, she tossed the ruined pen wrapping in a tissue in the trash and picked up her phone where it lay charging. Rubbing her thumb over Kara’s number, still marked as Agent K in her phonebook, she practiced what she would say in her head. It all boiled down to something like I love you and oh, by the way, I destroyed our enemies with cold efficiency and please don’t be scared of me now that you’ve seen who I used to be.

Pressing dial, she waited and waited but eventually, the phone rang out with no answer from the blonde and blue-eyed girl she was hopelessly in love with. Then she remembered what Alex had told her, that once Kara would wake up, she’d probably start out blaming herself for getting shot and think of it as a failure on her part. Most likely the blonde was withdrawing into herself right now. Sighing, she opened her laptop and started researching post-traumatic stress disorder. If she was going to have a relationship with Kara, it was overdue that she study the ghosts that haunted the blonde and why they might be stopping her from answering. Or she might just be asleep you idiot! The rational voice in her head reminded her, that annoying little voice might very well be right but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t be prepared regardless. 

Don’t push, was one of the things that kept coming up in the literature and that meant she had to fight back her own urges to always try and fix things. Kara would contact her when she was ready or awake, but she wrote out a short text to reassure the blonde that she was in this for the long haul. Since being in a combat situation again had mostly likely triggered the blonde and the best she could do was be there for her when she was ready.

_Darling Kara, know that I love you and will always be here for you. Remember it’s rule number 3. Call me when you’re ready or awake. No pressure. Yours, Love Dove._ She read over the admittedly rather sappy text but hit sent regardless. Though, she could do a bit more than send a cute text to make sure Kara understood that she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Jess, could you come in here please,” she then said after pressing the intercom on her desk phone and her loyal assistant appeared almost as if by magic. All that was missing was a puff of smoke.

“Yes ma’am, sorry... Lena,” Jess asked holding her tablet and the former filing clerk turned her secretary had been a lifesaver in the last couple of days. Balancing her now very busy schedule, making sure she ate and drank and making sure she got any official updates on Kara right away.

“Can you have a big, no make it a huge bundle of balloons sent to Kara Danvers’ hospital room, along with a stuffed toy. I’m thinking a lion and make it a big one,” she said, even though Kara wasn’t answering her phone that didn’t mean she couldn’t flood the blonde with tokens to show her affection. 

“Get well soon balloons, super cute, big ass lion, rawr, got it,” the secretary said while writing down the order and then smiled. “Can I just say that I’m glad you two decided to get out of your own way,” Jess then praised her with a teasing tone to her voice.

“Was it that obvious?” she asked and shook her head, maybe they hadn’t been as sneaky as they’d have liked to believe.

“Only if you were paying attention and by the way your hand is blue. I’ll go get some rubbing alcohol to clean it up,” her loyal secretary observed, and she looked at her blue-tinted hand and groaned. 

“Thank you, oh and bring me a card I can write on to send with that and make sure Kara gets those balloons today will you?” she asked and her secretary gave a firm nod before leaving the office. 

Going back to her research, she started to make a few notes on a yellow legal pad of things to do and things not to do when it came to Kara. A Luthor never half-assed anything and that extended to relationships, though there she and Lex didn’t quite agree. Slowly her notes grew more detailed and, in the end, filled up several pages. She circled one that read: Remind her of the future. Then her phone rang and speak, well think really, of the devil because it was Lex.

“Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” she chuckled when she answered the phone and her brother’s confused response was totally worth the lameness of her line.

“Like you’re an angel in white yourself and I assure that I’ve been called worse. Nice to hear from you too sis,” her brother scoffed and that made her grin.

“I’m sure you have, what’s up?” she asked since Lex rarely called her out of the blue, that was kind of her thing in their sibling dynamic.

“I saw your interview with Cat Grant, very well played if I must say so myself. I’m sure that if you’d suggested Agent Danvers get a medal the President would have been forced to give her one based on the public outcry alone. So, have you proposed to her yet?” he asked now sounding like his smug usual self again.

“I’ll propose to Kara when you propose to what’s her name and Kara has enough medals,” she retorted and made a note of taking Kara, if she wanted to that was, to meet Lex soon. It was, however, way too early to think of marriage. It did make for a nice little daydream though and she wondered what Kara looked like in her white Navy dress uniform which made her blush slightly.

“Ouch, but seriously Lena, are you alright? Because that couldn’t have been easy, even for you,” he asked and all credit to her big brother he knew her well. Though if he was asking her about the abduction or what she’d done during the interview, she wasn’t sure. Maybe a little bit of both?

“My self-respect is a bit damaged and I’ve still got a black eye, but you know me, I’ll bounce back. I was meaning to call you. We need to put plans into place to repurpose those companies we acquired in our little corporate raid. Their employees shouldn’t lose their jobs because of what their bosses did,” she said speaking a bit fast and tapped her pen against the pad she’d been scribbling on as she started thinking of plans and plots again.

“I’m already on that, it’s why I called. Lena, you need to go back to being Secretary of State now and leave the corporate dirty work to me,” he told her with a certain firmness to his voice.

“I can’t, you know how hard it is for me to let go of things once I start and I’ve got to see this through,” she protested and squeezed the pen in her hand.

“Lena, you got your revenge and now it’s time for you to go back to being the good guy. I’ll make sure everything is taken care of. You focus on doing good and making sure Agent Danvers comes out of this in one piece,” he said while now in full big brother protective mode and she paused.

“I… I don't think I ever thanked you for helping her... find me that is,” she said quietly when she found her voice again. Wanting to change the subject before she started drawing up a new list of companies and contractors that deserved a corporate raid to put them in their place.

“Well... helping her saved me from doing it myself, how is she doing? I like her you know, but do you think you’re ready to date someone as bossy as yourself?” he laughed and that made her smile, dating Kara would be a clash of their very strong personalities at times, but she was ready for the challenge.

“She’s awake, but she won’t answer my calls but I did some reading and based on that information I’m giving her space,” she admitted and brought the pen to her lips to chew on it before the sight of her still blue-tinted hand from earlier but a stop to that idea.

“Anything I can do to help, I can be on a plane in a few hours if you need me there,” he offered right away.

“I’ll... I’ll be fine… just take care of the employees of those companies we took over and let me know what happens,” she said trying to present a brave front but failing somewhat.

“Noted, give my best to Agent Danvers when you hear from her and Lena... I’m sure she won’t be able to stay away from you for too long,” he said cheerfully trying to reassure her that things would be alright. 

“I will and we’ll talk again soon promise,” she said and hung up before returning to her notes. Coming up with an idea she started listing out what she would need to pull it off. Kara Danvers was going to be wooed and reminded of the future. When the time was right of course, but she was going to woo the hell out of the blonde agent. Focusing on the future helped her focus and she felt the ghosts of her past fading again. In the middle of her planning, Jess brought a card and an envelope, keeping it short she wrote three words on the card and then Kara on the envelope before handing it back to her secretary with a smile. 

* * *

Fire, smoke, screams, pain! Kara bolted up in the hospital bed and gasped for air, the stitches in her back pulled at her wound in protest to her sudden movement and she eased herself back down with a grunt. Focusing on the sound of her breathing she pulled inwards, examined her feelings and grudgingly accepted them. Veteran Affairs sponsored therapy hadn’t been good for much, but it had taught her mindfulness. 

It had been an old dream, she’d been back in the village in the mountains laughing with the kids there and then their position had been swarmed. Putting her hand over the old knife wound on her collarbone, she sighed as the memories came flooding back and she remembered fighting for her life. But then the memory of the knife fight shifted and instead of staring down her attacker, she was looking into Lena’s green eyes and hearing the woman's voice in her head.

“I’m adding a third thing to the rules of our relationship. I’m your girlfriend and that means I come when you’re feeling bad, sad or in trouble,” the vision of the green-eyed beauty said softly.

“Lena…” she whispered softly while fighting back a smile as memories of Lena replaced the ones from her violent past. Taking pictures together in Paris, that night in Geneva, pizza slices and stolen kisses.

“Lena,” she then groaned loudly when she opened her eyes again and saw that her hospital room had become a balloon shop. It did, however, make her smile again, if only at the sheer volume of stuff that was floating around the room now.

A big floating red heart, some very patriotic red, white and blue balloons, and a massive get well soon balloon floated happily in one part of the room and resting on the foot of her bed was an impressively large stuffed lion. What was the woman thinking?

Reaching for the card on the table next to her bed with Kara written on it in Lena’s distinct handwriting she felt her hand begin to shake. They had to keep things secret but before she could worry further about the contents of the card, a nervous-looking nurse shuffled into the room clutching her patient chart.

“Yes?” she asked when the girl didn’t speak for a long while and then flashed the poor woman a smile when she realized she’d asked that a bit too harshly. 

“I… dressing… I mean your dressing and bandages need to be changed Captain Danvers,” the ginger-haired nurse with green eyes not quite as brilliant as Lena's stammered. 

“Captain Danvers?” she asked but sat up in her open-back hospital gown, being well accustomed to this procedure from her past stays in various military hospitals.

“Oh sorry, I saw the interview... on TV and can I say, it’s an honor…” the nurse again stammered as she examined her back.

“Hold on, what interview?” she asked, looking at the nurse as confusion started to sink in. What had happened? How long had she been out for? What interview?

All those questions, they had answers, of course. Answers that Alex could have given her when she’d woken up the first time with her sister by her bedside, but maybe she hadn’t been the nicest to her sister right then and Alex had left promising to be back when she was less grumpy. Though in her defense, she’d been full of meds and still kind of pissed at herself for getting shot after failing to secure the room when she’d gone to rescue Lena. And now this nurse was stammering and being all nervous around her while looking at her like she was some kind of… hero.

“I’m sorry, you probably haven’t even seen the interview yet because you’ve been sleeping a lot… but everyone is talking about it and oh here you can watch the recap of it while I change your dressing,” the overly enthusiastic nurse offered and unasked for she turned up the volume on the room’s TV. Before she could protest, Lena’s honey-like voice flowed into her ears promptly shorting out her brain like it was want to do.

“...she’s more than a hero, she’s the very best our nation’s armed forces have to offer, and we’ll share a slice of pizza together as soon as she’s out of the hospital,” Lena was speaking with her green eyes glistening on the screen before it cut to a woman she recognized as Cat Grant. Despite the concealer over the black-eye she’d received, with bright red lipstick on the raven-haired woman looked stunning in a blue pantsuit she wore and the sight made butterflies swarm in her stomach.

“That was Secretary of State Lena Luthor, praising the actions taken by her friend, Captain Kara Danvers, a former Navy-Seal and Agent of the Diplomatic Security Service. A true testament to our armed forces and…” she didn’t hear the rest and her ears started ringing for some reason.

“Captain Danvers?” the nurse asked when she felt her tensing up and she shook her head almost on the verge of tears.

“Turn it off… please,” she begged in a whisper and rubbed her face with both hands. What the fuck had Lena done? She thought but her head felt too heavy to think right now.

“Yes… ma’am…” the nurse said with noticeable panic in her voice and fumbled for the remote. The poor girl only managed to mute the TV in her panicked rush, as Lena’s face came back on screen and she found herself staring into those beautiful green eyes, unable to stop herself. 

“Sorry… I didn’t mean to upset you…” the nurse stammered again and started working on her changing the dressing on the wound on her back. Slowly peeling the old dressing off and cleaning the stitches with great care. 

“It’s alright, you didn’t know,” she reassured the nurse and steadied her breathing again as she got worked on. 

With the nurse now mercifully silent as she worked on cleaning her up and it gave her a chance to think. Lena had gone public with their friendship and her role in the rescue operation. That explained why she hadn’t been dragged in front of a disciplinary tribunal the moment she’d woken up. 

Lena was a very smart girl, passionate and impulsive at times, but smart. But this devious side to the woman was something she'd not seen in her before, but she remembered Lena once talking about leaving that part of herself behind in Metropolis. This couldn’t have been an easy thing for her to do. Oh, Lena what did you do? She thought to herself now more worried about Lena’s state of mind then upset about what the woman had done. After all, they'd both said those three words, I love you, or at least she hoped she'd gotten hers out before being shot. 

“Almost done, but I need to change the bandage on your arm too,” the nurse said softly, and she gave a nod of acknowledgment. 

The nurse was humming now as she worked, so closing her eyes she played out what she remembered from the rescue operation in her mind. Step by step and shot by shot with her trigger-finger twitching with each remembered shot fired. One of them must have been wearing a vest or body armor, which was the only reason she could find for what had happened. She should have double-tapped him, but she had been too eager to find Lena and get her to safety. When she thought of Lena the memories of the encounter faded, just like the flashback had earlier, and all of a sudden, she found herself thinking about the future and not about the ghosts of the past. 

“Can you keep a secret?” she asked the nurse after opening her eyes again and the nurse nodded her head eagerly and she was feeling impish now as hope filled her heart. This would be an experiment of sorts, but she needed to tell someone. 

“These are from my girlfriend and that big stuffed lion too,” she whispered and pointed at the balloons and the stuffed toy that Lena had sent. 

“Well, it looks like she’s trying to make an impression and you’re all done Captain Danvers,” the nurse said with a grin and finished her work by tying off the bandage on her bicep. 

“I guess she is… and please call me Kara,” she said and gave the nurse a smile that had worked well on the nurses at Landstuhl military hospital back in the day. 

“I… okay Kara…” the nurse stammered again while writing something in her chart and she smiled again mostly because she was happy and didn’t quite know why. 

“You do good work nurse,” she praised the woman while moving her arm and flexing it a little bit to check on the fresh bandage covering the flesh wound, she’d received. 

“Uhmmm you’re welcome… Captain… I mean Kara,” the nurse started blubbering, then blushed and all but fled the room. Watching the nurse flee she groaned when she saw the last person she wanted to have around right now.

“Practicing those smooth moves for your girlfriend I hope?” Alex asked, from where she leaned against the door and stepped into the room as the nurse fled. Darn it, of course, Alex would have come right away, her sister had most likely set up, so she’d be alerted the moment she woke up.

“After I murder her, maybe and I wasn't flirting with that nurse, but Alex how could you let her do… that?” she exclaimed, pointing at the TV where a snippet of the interview was still playing as part of a news broadcast. Her anger only lasted for so long, however, before the stitches hurt again and she had to lay back down. 

“Oh, you of all people know that Lena Luthor does whatever she wants. Just like you!” Alex all but laughed and sat down on the bed stroking her hair. It felt nice, even though they had their disagreements, Alex and her shared a bond that though strained could never be broken. 

“Tell me about it, guess it’s better than being dragged in front of a tribunal, again,” she admitted and fumbled for her phone as it vibrated. 

Groaning at the sight of a missed call and a text from Lena along with the new text from Oliver. Ignoring the text from her old friend, instead, she read the one from Lena. In it, the raven-haired beauty was being way too nice to her, but it did make her smile like a goof which Alex of course noticed. 

“Well, I think she’s good for you, if you don’t fuck it up that is,” her sister commented, and she gave her a dirty look in return before poking her tongue out.

“If you only here to give me a lecture on how I’m not dealing with my emotions then…” she started the well-rehearsed speech that she’d unleashed on her sister many times before and swatted the hand away from her head.

“No, I’m here to offer you… a solution,” her sister said patiently and handed her an envelope with the Seal of the President of the United States on it. 

“I… what? Why?” she asked running her finger over the seal and looking up at her sister in her second bout of confusion for the day.

“Kara, your not so secret girlfriend turned you into a national hero within the span of ten minutes. Now, like it or not, you can’t go back to the DS after the stunt you pulled and who knows how long you’ll take to recover this time anyway? Now, judging from the look on your face when you read that text, I assume you want to be with this girl, correct?” Alex asked using way too many words that made way too much sense. 

Too impulsive, always too impulsive and passionate, that was her problem, it had gotten her injured time and again while in the Seals, but that same impulsiveness had also led her to Lena. Saving Lena had been another fit of heroism that Oliver always said would bite her in the ass one day. Now with her body aching and the fact, she wasn’t getting any younger looming over her, maybe it was time to face the music and Lena Luthor. Maybe it was time to retire from active duty.

“I… I do…” she admitted and felt herself smiling holding her arms out for a hug from her sister because right now she also felt scared as all hell. 

“Oh, come here you space cadet, you,” her sister laughed and gave her a careful hug, but she squeezed her sister with all her might. 

“I can still serve, right? Still do good?” she asked and fighting back a sniffle and Alex only nodded her head and smiled.

“Of course you can, I don’t see you becoming a trophy wife for the Secretary of State anytime soon,” her sister laughed and the mental image of herself in a respectable looking dress at a diplomatic function made her laugh until the stitches got pulled again. 

“Owww... maybe not… but are you really okay with this?” she whispered into Alex’s ear after suppressing her laughter and the pain in her back faded again.

“I’m always going to be okay with you getting shot at less, and Lena… well she’s a good woman,” Alex admitted and that made her squeeze her sister even harder. 

“Yay!” she exclaimed which made Alex burst out laughing again and for the first time in a long time she felt like herself again. 

It was time for a change, and time to come out of the shadows she’d been hiding in for the past decade. Her time as Agent Danvers was over because of her actions and she could accept that. The special-operations captain she had once been was also in her past and it was time to take a brave step into the future with Lena. Maybe with a little bit of help from her big sister. And like that, the ghosts faded further and further into the hazy past, always there but not dominating her waking hours anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I dragging this out? Yes, yes, I am, do I love writing siblings being siblings, oh hell yes!


	14. Another Slice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go for that long overdue pizza slice, Alex Danvers comes through in a big way and there is leather, lots of leather.

Lena Luthor was back at the White House and waiting outside the Oval Office. This felt like a bad case of Deja Vu, but she was not the same woman she’d been a few months ago. She was Lena Luthor, Secretary of State and she was ready this time. The summons from the White House had come at the end of the day shortly after she received a text message from Kara which she’d read and re-read maybe twenty or thirty times since then.

_I’m doing better and I’ll see you soon, Love Kara._ The message was short and sweet, cryptic but that was an occasional habit of Kara’s she’d have to get used to. The woman had, after all, spent years in special-operations while in the Seals and then as a special agent of the Diplomatic Security Service. Checking her concealer again and her lipstick by using her phone’s camera she then unbuttoned and rebuttoned her jacket again. 

“He’s ready for your Madam Secretary,” the President’s secretary said and smiled at her while on the TV a profile piece on her was playing. A far cry from the scandal-ridden affair that had been playing on the same screen a few months ago. 

“Thank you,” she nodded to the woman and walked through the open door into the Oval Office. Like last time it was only her, the President and Alex Danvers in the office along with tension you could cut with a knife until the President broke it. 

“Lena, good to see you again,” President Jones greeted her and offered his hand which she took, giving the man a firm handshake. 

“Always a pleasure John,” she said and took a seat on the couch when it was offered to her while giving Alex a friendly nod and the woman had an almost mischievous look on her usually stoic face. 

“Alex has been telling me that you’re doing good, great even,” the President started, and she had to clamp down hard on her eyebrow because she didn’t believe that for a second.

“Thank you, it’s been a challenging few months, but I feel like me and my team has had some success turning around the mess my predecessor left behind,” she agreed and crossed her legs.

“That’s a modest way of saying it. Lena, you’ve made great strides in repairing some of the most difficult diplomatic relationships and your work in Geneva and Paris might help get me reelected,” he said almost laughing, and she wanted to do a celebratory first pump so badly right now.

“I, of course, serve at the pleasure of the President,” she accepted the praise with a small smile. 

“Though I must say your interview with Cat Grant was interesting, to say the least,” he said with his voice deepening a bit becoming almost conspiratorial.

“I… I couldn’t leave my friend out to dry, not after everything she did for me,” she said and felt very much like she was back in school and in the principal's office. 

“Lena, I served, I don’t speak of it often, but I understand,” he nodded and now she failed at controlling her emotions as her eyes went wide.

“Leave no man behind,” she said, and the President smiled at her which made her feel oddly proud.

“Now we didn’t bring you here for small talk, well not only for small talk. Alex has finished her report and briefed me on your actions,” he said, and she fought the urge to glance at Alex Danvers. 

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. It’s obvious, that you’ve performed above expectations and in every regard and following your interview we easily have the votes to make your posting permanent. If you still want the job that is,” he went on when she paused and this time, she gave in to that fist pump urge. 

“Yes!” she cheered and pumped her fist before collecting herself upon hearing Alex chuckling. 

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” the President laughed and offered his hand again so they could shake on their deal.

“Yes, sir, sorry John,” she said shaking his head eagerly. The job was her, she couldn’t wait to tell Kara about this if the blonde was ever going to show herself again. 

“Good, now onto our next order of business, Alex would you please bring in my new advisor?” the President asked Alex who after nodding walked to a different door. 

“Your new advisor?” she asked not quite understanding what was going on now and then she noticed that Alex had that look on her face. The 'I’m a Danvers and I’m up to something' look. 

“Yes, Alex brought it to my attention that we had an opening for a special security advisor that needed to be filled. I think you are going to get along with her very well actually,” the President said with a knowing smile and then it became very, very hard to breathe.

The door opened and Alex stepped to one side to let the President’s new advisor step into the Oval Office. It was a tall blonde woman with her hair in a perfect long braid down her back and on her head rested the white dress uniform cap of a naval officer. Sapphire blue eyes met hers and Kara Danvers in her dress uniform whites stood before her, with all her medals pinned to her chest, her shoes polished to a mirror shine and a small smile gracing her pink lips. Two things went through her mind, the first one was a loud wow! And the other second was a, I’m so screwed!

“I believe you know Captain Danvers?” the President asked with a knowing grin and she could only nod her head in muted response.

“Mister President, sir!” Kara exclaimed, snapping to attention and saluting the Commander in Chief before turning promptly on her heel and facing her.

“Madam Secretary,” the blonde exclaimed but a bit softly and she still couldn’t breathe. The uniform was so white, it was almost glowing and Kara, her Kara, saluted her crisply. 

“Please Captain, sit,” the President offered the blonde and carefully the blonde sat down, right next to her and she felt like she was about to explode.

“Thank you, sir,” Kara said formerly, taking off her cap and putting it under her arm. 

Breathe, Lena, Breathe, she had to remind herself. Kara is just wearing her dress uniform and sitting right next to you after you’ve not seen her for a while. Do not kiss her in front of the President of the United States no matter how badly you want to.

“And you know Lena of course, your friendship is national news after all,” the President asked Kara who turned and smiled at her. Breathe!

“I do, sir,” Kara said still being every inch the professional soldier in the presence of her Command in Chief. Before she passed out it was actually Alex Danvers who saved her from passing out in the presence of the President of the United States. 

“Mister President, you’re needed… elsewhere,” Alex said with a nudge of her head and if she had the power of speech, she’d chastise her almost friend for being so obvious and lame. 

“Oh, of course, I’ll leave you two… to catch up,” the President said with a wink and then like that they were alone and awake instead of last time where they’d been bleeding and bruised. For the first time in days, they were together, and she couldn’t speak. 

“So… the President offered me a job, as you may have guessed,” Kara said and turned to face her with a smile on her face. The woman looked like an angel in her white naval uniform and she could only nod.

“I got your card, and the lion and the balloons… all the balloons,” the blonde went on pulling out of her pocket the card she’d had Jess send along with said balloons.

“Good... “she managed to squeak out and watched Kata open the envelope while giving her a coy look.

“I’m just going to read this because it sums up pretty much what I’ve been wanting to say for a while now. Ahem! I love you,” the blonde read from the card and smiled at her. It was that beaming smile that was like looking straight into the sun.

“I love you too!” she blurted out and that made Kara laugh, a rich and playful laugh that gave her soul wings.

“Oh, so you can speak and here I was worried that the cat had gotten that wonderful tongue of yours,” Kara laughed and scooted closer to her on the couch. 

“I wanted to give you space and…” she started apologizing but Kara put a finger against her lips and shook her head.

“No need to apologize and thank you... for giving me the space I needed,” the blonde said, and she went cross-eyed trying to look at the finger on her lips.

“You look amazing,” she blurted out when the finger was removed from her lips and the blonde actually blushed.

“I’ve not worn this in years,” Kara admitted looking down at her navy whites and brushing her hands down her pants to wipe of imaginary lint.

“I like it… a lot,” she whispered running her fingers over the shoulder epaulets of Kara’s uniform. 

“You look good in blue and red yourself,” Kara whispered back and slowly they moved closer to each other.

“I’m sorry for what I did in the interview, outing us without asking you but I had to try and help… somehow,” she quietly said and could feel Kara’s breath on her lips now.

“There is nothing to forgive and I’m sorry I didn’t come running when I woke up,” the blonde whispered back, and she was so close now that she could feel the heat radiating off the blonde’s face.

“We’re in the Oval Office,” she giggled and carefully put her hand on Kara’s cheek which made the blonde sigh in contentment.

“This will be something to tell our kids about someday then,” the blonde murmured with her beautiful blue eyes glistening with unshed tears.

“Oh Kara,” she managed to get out before kissing the blonde gently on the lips with Kara returning the kiss while putting a hand over hers.

It was a gentle and short kiss, they were in the Oval Office after all, but she poured her heart and soul into that one brief, tender kiss. When she pulled back Kara was smiling at her with tears running down her cheeks. Pulling out a handkerchief, always carry one just in case, she wiped the tears away and smiled at the blonde. 

“I’m leaking,” the blonde laughed as she wiped the tears away and she couldn’t fight back her own laughter.

“That happens sometimes… when you’re happy,” she said, and Kara took her hand before gently kissing it.

“I’m a little bit scared too,” the blonde admitted in a small voice that made her heart clench at how tiny the sound was.

“Me too, me too,” she said repeating her words before putting her arm around the blonde soldier and they sat like that until Alex returned making them jump apart like guilty teenagers.

“The President sends his apologies, but matters of state came up, you understand,” Kara’s sister said with a knowing smile.

“Oh, we totally do… thank you so much, Alex,” Kara said and got up again carefully before enveloping Alex in a fierce sisterly hug. Watching the blonde carefully, she made a note of checking Kara’s wounds once they were alone.

“You set this up!” she playfully accused the older Danvers who was busy being hugged by her sister. 

“On the President's orders, I assure you,” Alex managed reply though, but it was a bit muffled by Kara’s bone-crushing hug. 

“Isn’t she the coolest?” Kara asked letting her sister go from the hug and the woman took a deep exaggerated breath.

“She kind of is… thank you… Alex,” she said standing up and offering her hand to the elder Danvers. When the brunette had said she’d work something out for Kara, this was not what she had expected but Alex had gone above and beyond for her sister. For them both.

“This way, you can move in the same circles… fall for each other again and nobody will be the wiser when you go public,” Alex explained and then instead of shaking the offered hand, Kara’s sister hugged her.

“Yeah I forgot to warn you, us Danvers’ we’re huggers,” Kara said sounding cheerful and almost bouncing at the sight of them hugging.

“Noted,” she laughed and then gulped as she met the steely eyes of Alex Danvers once she was free from the hug.

“Oh no, no, no, please don’t give her the shovel talk Alex,” Kara begged, and she gulped even harder at the smile on Alex’s face.

“Oh yes, I have to give her the shovel talk, you know that…” Kara’s sister laughed and what followed were the most embarrassing but admittedly cute three minutes of her life as Alex gave her the rundown of what would happen if she’d ever hurt Kara, while the blonde in question stuck her fingers in her ears and hummed Camp Town Ladies Sing This Song as loud as she could.

* * *

Later, they were in Kara’s apartment, more accurately in the blonde’s bedroom, and she was helping the now tired woman put her dress uniform away. The medals were back in their glass case and the white cap was on the dresser. Then the blonde winced when she tried to take off her jacket and Lena stepped in.

“Here let me do that for you,” she offered, stepping up behind Kara to help slide the jacket of her shoulders. 

“Thank you I’m just a bit stiff that’s all… and you didn’t have to come home with me,” the blonde protested as she kept undressing her being careful of her injuries.

“I’m not letting you out of my sight Captain Danvers, deal with it,” she stated and hung the jacket up as the blonde stood and waited patiently.

“Yes ma’am,” Kara replied quietly but there was a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth when she stepped in front of the stunning blonde again.

“So big promotion uh?” she asked and started to unbutton the crisp white shirt the blonde wore underneath the jacket. 

“Yeah, special security advisor the President, mom’s going to be so proud and Clark so jealous,” Kara said and watched her undoing the buttons one by one.

“It couldn’t have been easy, retiring from active duty again,” she said softly and had to fight back against the urge to touch Kara’s skin as it became exposed. The woman, despite her stay in the hospital still looked like she was carved out of granite or more apt description would be that she’d been cast from solid steel. 

“I’ve been… hiding behind duty and protocol for too long… the routine of it all was stopping me from moving on… from moving forward… with you,” the blonde admitted and she found herself looking into those blue eyes while pushing the shirt of those strong shoulders.

“I don’t want you to be unhappy… that’s all… since we are both do-gooders at heart,” she said quietly as she took the shirt and hung it up along with the jacket.

“I will still be doing good… I can make sure others… don’t experience what I did… and it was time to… grow up…” Kara said after taking a moment to think about her words while she buttoned up the shirt on the hanger so it wouldn’t get wrinkled.

“Grow up?” she asked and walked back over to where the blonde stood by the edge of her bed. 

“And sit please,” she ordered her sweetly, and the blonde lowered herself down to the bed now topless safe for a modest white bra.

“It was the wrong phrase maybe, but I was reliving my past, again and again, seeking the same routine and it was preventing me from… growing,” the blonde tried to explain as she knelt down and started untying her shoes.

“Go on, keep talking,” she encouraged her now official girlfriend and undid the laces of first the left and then right shoe. This felt, domestic, and it felt good to be able to take care of Kara like this. 

“If… if we are to have a future... together… I can’t be haunted… if that doesn’t make sense, I’m sorry it’s been a long day,” the blonde apologized and she smiled up at the woman.

“It’s alright, we don’t have to talk about everything right now. We’ve got plenty of time,” she assured the blonde and pulled off her shoes one after the other with socks following suit.

“Thank you, so we’re dating now uh?” Kara asked as she guided the blonde to stand up again.

“I’m helping you undress in your bedroom I’d say that we’re maybe a bit beyond that,” she answered with a smile and still on her knees started undoing the blonde’s belt while looking up at her. 

“Will… will I get this kind of service all the time?” the blonde asked with a teasing tone in her voice and a grin on her face.

“If you want, then I’ll gladly kneel before you anytime you want,” she teased back and pulled the woman’s pants down which the blonde stepped out of with those long and graceful legs on full display.

“Ooooh….” Kara tried to speak but it was her turn to get one over on her blonde and she kissed the outline of her left thigh, felling the muscle tense underneath her touch. 

“Sit down,” she ordered the blonde who obeyed right away, now only dressed in a pair of white cotton panties and a bra. 

“First, I’ll check your dressing, then you get your reward,” she whispered into the blonde’s ear as she got up.

Kara simply nodded and watched her with wide blue eyes as she first checked the bandage on the blonde’s muscular bicep and then the dressing on her back. Both looked fine, she could see goosebumps rising on Kara’s skin whenever she touched her and satisfied with the status of the blonde’s bandages it was time to show her how much she’d missed the woman. Kneeling back down she hooked her fingers into the waistband of Kara’s underwear and tugged at them, so the blonde raised her butt off the bed. 

“Do I pass the examination, ma’am?” Kara asked chewing on her bottom and she hummed as she started pulling down the blonde’s underwear, inch by inch exposing more of the flesh she so desired to touch.

“With flying colors, Captain,” she murmured and slid the white cotton fabric down Kara’s long legs before pulling the panties off and stuffing them in her pocket for show.

“Keeping these,” she joked and spread Kara’s legs after running her hands up and down those muscular thighs before wetting her lips.  
“Lena…” the blonde whispered, wordlessly she started kissing her inner thighs while looking up at her the entire time and oh how those blue eyes twinkled like twin azure stars. 

“Let me take care of you… darling…” she whispered back with her voice husky and ideas swimming her head of just what she wanted to do to the leggy blonde now that they weren’t doing this over the phone.

Kara’s skin was as soft as she’d imagined it to be during their encounters over the phone and she could smell the blonde’s arousal and it was intoxicating. Trailing kisses towards Kara’s center she kissed it gently and then gave a small lick which made the blonde moan and shiver. Kara’s hand grabbed her head and she felt those powerful hips moving underneath her hands.

“Don’t… stop…” Kara moaned loudly, and she had no intention of doing anything of the sort. 

Cupping and then squeezing Kara’s firm ass, she started eating the woman out like she was starving, she tasted so sweet and so intoxicating that she found herself moaning in unison with the blonde. Kara’s moans grew louder and louder and this was what she’d dreamed of so many times, she was with Kara in the flesh. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” the blonde started gasping for air and running those calloused fingers through her hair while squeezing her strong thighs around her head. 

Redoubling her efforts, she found the blonde’s sensitive clit and started sucking and humming on it. That did the trick and Kara started shaking all over as fingers dug at her scalp. Massaging Kara’s behind she pressed her mouth against the blonde’s wet sex and felt her starting to buck and thrash about. 

“I… love… you!” Kara out a shout just as she drove the blonde over the edge, then she felt Kara’s juices flooding her mouth and she swallowed them eagerly until her love stopped shaking like an oak before the storm. 

“Lena… hold me…” Kara then almost whined as she collapsed back onto her bed while every so often giving cute little shakes signaling her post-orgasmic state.

“I’m coming darling,” she whispered and kicked off her heels before stripping off her jacket. 

Climbing into Kara’s bed she cuddled up against the blonde and kissed her on the cheek gently again and again until those beautiful blue eyes opened slowly and met hers. The blonde was glowing with an inner light and it made her heart jump in her chest as those strong arms wrapped around her. 

“You… staying the night?” the blonde asked sweetly, and she nodded her head as they got comfortable together on the bed. 

“I’ll stay as long as you want me to,” she promised and pulled the covers over them and pulled Kara closer to her, mindful of the blonde’s injured and sore body.

“Kinda want you to stay… forever,” Kara whispered and then gave a cute little yawn, 

“That… can be arranged,” she said and undid the braid that held the blonde’s mass of curls in place.

“I’m sleepy...” Kara admitted cutely and gave another yawn before cuddling in closer as she brushed out that soft blonde hair with her fingers. 

“Get some rest, I’ll be here when you wake up… promise,” she promised and the blonde gave a little nod before dozing off to dreamland and with the sound of the woman’s steady breathing filling her ears she soon fell into sync with Kara’s heartbeat and breathing and fell asleep as well.

* * *

It was morning when she woke up, the sun hit her face and she found herself under the covers, Kara’s covers, wearing her blouse and pants from yesterday. Fumbling around she found Kara gone but she smelled bacon and eggs, so rolling out of bed she followed the smell to the kitchen. Leaning against the door of the bedroom, she saw the blonde cooking while wearing only her blue jacket from yesterday over her nude frame. It was a sight she’d never forget since the jacket didn’t do a very good job of covering much of anything of the blonde’s body. 

“I could get used to this,” she observed, and Kara looked up and smiled at her with that million-watt smile of hers.

“That was my plan, feed you, fuck you and you’ll never want to leave,” the blonde laughed and plated up two servings of bacon and eggs with toast, a soldier’s breakfast if there was ever one, and carried them over to the small kitchen table.

“Plan on keeping me around I see, great my plan is working too then,” she laughed and sat down with the smell of a hot breakfast filling her nostrils.

“Great minds and all that,” Kara said and bent down to kiss her slowly on the lips which she accepted with great relish.

“Oh, orange juice! I forgot the orange juice,” the blonde exclaimed when they were done kissing and bounced back to the fridge and returned with two glasses.

“You’re so… bouncy,” she joked and enjoyed the view of Kara’s toned body as the blonde darted around the kitchen wearing only her blue jacket.

“Glad you’re enjoying the view, now eat, I’ve got plans for us today,” Kara urged her on and placed a tall glass of orange juice down on the table in front of her.

“I… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this cheerful,” she said with a smile to which the blonde smiled back at her again and it was at that moment that she decided to make it her life’s mission to keep Kara smiling. 

“I… well I didn’t have any nightmares last night,” Kara admitted softly almost shyly before biting down on a piece of bacon.

“You had… those often?” she asked and moved her eggs around as she again got that urge to kick her own ass for asking stupid questions.

“I used too, but they’ve been happening less and less... since I met you… and you are kind of better than Advil PM,” the blonde said, and it was one of the few times she actually saw Kara Danvers, professional badass, blush.

“Hey, no need to be ashamed and I’m not going anywhere, remember,” she reminded the now blushing former soldier.

“I know, and no more moody stuff today, eat, eat I’ve got plans, you’ll see,” the blonde declared as the brief cloud of sadness that seemed have appeared over her was dispelled.

“Yes ma’am,” she gave a salute while holding a piece of bacon and then bit down on it with Kara looking at her with an adorable look of admiration on her face.

They finished breakfast in silence, a comfortable silence and she offered to do the dishes while the blonde went to get changed. With her sleeves rolled up and bubbles in the air around her, she didn’t notice Kara coming back out of the bedroom until she felt those strong arms wrap around her waist from behind.

“What’s this plan of yours then?” she asked turning around and putting her hands squarely on Kara’s hips she looked up at the taller woman.

“We’re going for a little ride,” Kara replied, and the blonde was wearing jeans, low boots, a black t-shirt and that same beat-up older bomber jacket from a few months ago. 

“You did promise me a ride on your bike if I was a good Secretary of State,” she said remembering a promise Kara had given her when they’d just met. 

“Mmmhmm, and the first stop is your place for a change of clothes,” the blonde said and gave her a little kiss before pulling back.

“What pantsuits and motorcycles don’t go together?” she asked teasingly and in turn, got handed her jacket and a helmet.

“I want to see you in jeans and leathers, sue me,” Kara laughed and led her by the hand outside, where two agents waved them from a black SUV parked nearby and she saluted them back. She was still Secretary of State after all and that meant a security detail, even though she was dating the President’s special security advisor. 

Kara pulled the covers of her blue and red bike while she put her hair in a tight ponytail and pulled on the purple helmet that Kara had handed her. Watching as the blonde swung her long leg over the bike after putting on a blue helmet with a red and gold stylized ‘S’ on it she found herself shamelessly staring at the woman.

“What you are waiting for, get on,” the blonde urged her, and she raised an eyebrow but climbed on behind the woman who revved the engine playfully.

Wrapping her arms around Kara she found herself laughing when the bike took off. Tightening the grip around the blonde’s waist she allowed herself to forget about everything but being in this moment with Kara Danvers.

* * *

Lena’s apartment was nicer than she remembered when she’d carried the woman home, a bit opulent, but nice, Kara decided as she sat on the couch waiting for Lena to shower and change. The raven-haired temptress had asked her if she wanted them to shower together, but through some miracle of willpower, she’d managed to decline the offer. If they’d start down that road, they’d never get anything done and she had plans, a promise to keep.

Now listening to the sound of the shower coming from Lena’s on-suite bathroom all she could only wait for the woman to finish making herself pretty, not that the green-eyed beauty needed to get any prettier after all a soldier could only deal with being so distracted. Since they’d slept together and it had been the most peaceful sleep she’d had in years, she’d realized that Alex was right, and she didn’t want to fuck this up.

The shower turned off and the sound of a hairdryer could be heard and out of habit she checked for her weapons, but she wasn’t carrying them anymore, that part of her life was over. Oh boy, what did I do? She thought to herself and looked around Lena’s living room again. Seeing no pictures on the shelves or mementos of the past, she pulled out her phone and started going through her pictures until she got to the two pictures she cherished. One was of Lena with the Eiffel Tower in the background and the other one was of herself against the same backdrop. It had been as close to doing something as a couple in Paris as they’d gotten. 

“And ordered,” she said to herself after placing an order for them to be printed and mailed to her house, it would be a cute gift to give Lena someday soon.

It had been, odd, to sleep without the nightmares, they would come back, they always did, but right now she felt at peace with her decisions. Was this what being in love meant, well then, she was all for it. 

The hairdryer stopped and the door to Lena’s bedroom opened shortly after and then she stopped breathing as she rose to attention. Lena Luthor in black leather, was not a sight she was ready for and no amount of combat experience could have prepared her for the vision that stood before her. Lena’s jet-black hair was down, her always kissable lips were ruby red, and her bright green eyes highlighted by masterfully applied eyeshadow. And as for the outfit, fuck she was in trouble. The white top she had on, showed off the woman’s amble… assets… and the leather of the black skintight pants creaked as she walked over wearing heeled boots with a matching jacket slung over her shoulder. 

“Am I suitably dressed now, Captain?” Lena asked her and it sounded almost like a purr to which she nodded her head like a confused puppy.

“Is that a yes?” her raven-haired angel asked with that gosh-darned smirk on her lips. 

“Yessss…” she said slowly as her brain rebooted itself and even in heels Lena was still shorter than she was.

“I would kiss you for being so cute, but it’s too early to ruin this lipstick,” Lena kept teasing her and she dumbly nodded in agreement. It was too early, after all, they had plans, oh yeah, the plan, stick to the plan soldier!

“If you’re ready, then I got a surprise for you, but we got to go for another ride,” she said and tried not to drool when Lena pulled on her jacket. So firm and bouncy and all that pale skin, no its time focus, solider!

“If it means I get to hold onto your again then I’ll go anywhere with you,” Lena declared with a smile and mindful of the teasing woman’s lipstick she bent down and kissed her on the forehead instead.

“Let’s go,” she said and soon they were back on the bike with Lena’s arms around her waist. If this wasn’t heaven, this was pretty darn close to it and she could stay like this forever. 

Pulling up outside the pizza place, the same one she’d suggested to Lena on that first day at the State Department, she parked her bike and helped the raven-haired woman in getting off it. In the process giving herself good girl points for maintaining eye-contact because there was so much else to admire about Lena right now.

“Oh, now you’re just being too cute,” Lena observed and kissed her softly on the cheek after taking off her helmet, leaving a faint lipstick mark behind. 

“You did tell Cat Grant that we’d share a slice and I’m well out of the hospital,” she said with a shrug trying to pretend like it was no big deal. When in fact it was a huge freaking deal to her, but she could play it cool-ish. 

“Well lead on,” the raven-haired and now leather-clad beauty offered and took her arm which made her feel all tingly inside.

When they stepped into the small pizzeria, she glanced side-ways at Lena and did a little jump for joy, internally of course, when those green eyes went wide. It wasn’t much, but she’d messaged ahead, asked for a favor and now the table they’d shared all those months ago was done up nicely, with a red and white checkered tablecloth, a candle and their favorite slices waiting for them.

“It’s not a lot but…” she started to say but was cut off by a thoroughly lipstick-ruining kiss by the very happy looking Lena Luthor.

“It is perfect!” the raven-haired, genius-level smart and third most powerful person in the country declared. Perfect… perfect was good because Lena deserved perfection or at the very least attempted perfection and the rest of the afternoon turned into a delightful blur for Kara Danvers. No longer a Navy-Seal, or a special agent or a war-weary veteran, she could just be Kara Danvers and out on a date with her girlfriend Lena Luthor. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second, to last chapter I think, we're pretty much at their happy ending but I want to wrap things up a bit to give them a full-on happy ending after this. Alex and Lex need to spend time with them a bit, there is a bit more smut and well Die Hard needs to be watched at Christmas. 
> 
> This one turned out a bit longer than the recent ones, but I wanted to give insight into both woman's mindsets.


	15. The Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue. We meet up with our two love birds a couple of months down the line, it's time for the overdue wooing of Kara Danvers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter serves as stated above as the epilogue to this story. I'm not one for dragging things out and I feel like this a good place to leave things. 
> 
> Also, I've been binging a bit (a lot) of Supercorp, as the kids call it, fan art lately on Instagram and that's where Kara's look in this chapter comes from.

Two months later…

Little black dress, check! Cleavage, double-check! Scandalous underwear that the Secretary of State shouldn’t be caught dead in, oh hell yes check! Heels tall enough so I can almost look her in those beautiful blue eyes, four inches and check! Lena stood in front of her mirror running through her mental checklist for the evening and smoothed down the tight black dress she’d chosen for this occasion. It wasn’t for any official business. No, she’d made herself a promise when Kara was in the hospital that she was going to woo the hell out of the blonde soldier and tonight, was that night. 

Kara had kind of beat her to the punch though, what with the motorbike ride to a surprise but utterly adorable pizza date. But that had been cute, now it was time for Kara Danvers to see how a Luthor treated her girl. Their busy schedules and in Maggie’s words ass-backward courtship also meant that this would be their third ‘official’ date. Time to go big and then take the girl home. 

“How do I look?” she asked Maggie who in all honestly looked a bit bored as she sat on the bed. Granted this look had taken a long time to get right, but she had brought her friend in for a second opinion because this night had to go perfectly. 

“Yeah, yeah, you look great, go get her tiger,” her best friend commented without looking up from her phone, so she threw nearby make-up brush at her friend to get her attention.

“Oww! I said you looked… oh damn… hola mamacita… I mean I’m engaged!” her friend blurted out and held up her left hand to show off her engagement ring.

“Perfect, just the look I was going for,” she laughed and fixed her bra for the third time, Kara liked breasts, so by Tesla's Coils, Kara was going to get a show to remember.

“You are going to turn heads that's for sure. That’s if Kara doesn’t bust said heads for staring at her girl first,” Maggie laughed and punched the air the mimicking Kara’s stiff right hook.

“Kara wouldn’t do that and you know that,” she said in mock protest and started deciding on which perfume to wear. 

“Not without a good cause, but I’m sorry but your ex-seal girlfriend is a little bit scary sometimes,” her friend admitted and then quickly added after being glared at; “But in a totally badass way!” while holding up her hands in her defense.

Maggie and Kara had actually become fast friends when she’d introduce the pair, or more accurately when her best friend and Chief of Staff had shown up at her apartment one night to drop off some files on the trade talks with the European Union and found them being adorkable on the couch together watching Star Trek. That encounter had given her a new insight into Kara too, and the hard-bitten veteran could be the friendliest person on the planet when her guard was down, hell she could be downright puppy-like. 

“You alright in there Little Luthor? You have that faraway look in your eyes again,” Maggie asked, having gotten off the bed and knocked on the side of her head.

“Ouch! Don’t mess up my hair, yeah I’m here, just thinking that’s all,” she protested to being knocked on and double-checked her hair, slicked back and down, and makeup, ruby red lips and dark eyeliner, one more time. Hair up and lips red, yep Kara Danvers was going to drool. 

“I know I’ve said this a million times, but you’ve got it bad for your not so secret girlfriend!” her friend laughed at her panic and annoyingly she was right. 

The past couple of months with Kara had been the best of her life, hectic because of both their jobs, but still the best. Kara was often at the White House now at all hours of the day and night when not undergoing rehab for her injuries. While she had been caught napping on the couch in her office at the State Department at least twice by Jess. The world didn’t stop simply because they could now date without worrying about protocol or the chain of command.

“That’s it, let’s get you into the limo before you stare into space so much you forget about your date,” Maggie sighed and took her by the arm, handed her one of her favorite red Gucci bags for a pop of color and marched her down to the waiting limo downstairs.

“Thanks for the help Mags,” she thanked her friend with a genuine smile after said friend all but stuffed her into the back of the limo.

“Anytime chica, now go and make Little Danvers drool,” her friend encouraged her with a rather mischievous look. 

“You know one day I will get you to tell me just exactly how you know Alex,” she teased and in response, Maggie hurriedly closed the door and banged on the limo’s roof.

“She’s good to go guys!” her friend shouted, and she rolled down the window and in a very Kara like move stuck her tongue out at her best friend. 

“I will find out!” she called out with her head out the window as the limo pulled away, and the black SUV with her security detail tailed behind it.

“No, you won’t!” Maggie shouted back as she waved her off and she pulled herself back in and it was time to warn Kara.

_I’m on my way be ready for to wooed sailor_ she typed out and hit send on her phone.

* * *

“Alex, she’s coming, she’s coming,” Kara all but shouted into her phone where it lay on the bed as she paced back and forth in her bedroom. The text from Lena had sent her into a tiny bit of a panic and in said panic, she’d called up Alex for advice.

After all, Lena was on her way and she wasn’t even dressed yet. Not one for dresses or fancy dress, she was a jeans kind of girl, but she’d still wanted to dress up for Lena and thus had to overcome that particular aversion. So, she’d put her hair up and was in the process of putting on a three-piece dark blue suit that had been hanging in the back of her closet for years. She’d gotten the pants and belt on and was fumbling around with the buttons of the shirt, so far so good.

“Yes Kara, she’s coming, now breathe space cadet and finish getting dressed,” her sister tried to calm her down over the phone, but it wasn’t working very well.

“She told me to… to be ready to be wooed. What does that even mean?” she asked and checked the perimeter again. Meaning she looked out the window to see if Lena was downstairs yet as she tied on the red silver necktie Oliver had told her to wear. 

“It sounds like your girlfriend is going all out tonight, no reason to be stressed about that, right?” Alex asked her and why did stupid older sisters always ask the right questions? 

“But I’m not a girl you take out on nice dates… and I’m kinda nervous, what if people like see us, see us?” she asked and checked herself in the mirror by while pulling on the vest and buttoning it up.

“Captain Kara Danvers, you have three purple hearts, a bronze star and a navy cross sitting on your shelf and just last week you got into a heated argument with the President of the United States. So, don’t you dare tell me you’re scared of going on a public date with Lena Luthor,” her sister chastised her and stepping out of the bedroom she looked over to her medals on the shelf. Now also home to the stuffed lion that Lena had given her. Picking up an old pair of glasses she sometimes used to read she gave the lion a pat on the head.

“What... what if I fuck it up?” she asked and cradled the phone to her ear while pulling on the suit’s jacket and checking herself in the hallway mirror. 

“Seeing as you took a bullet for this girl… sorry... I didn’t mean to bring that up,” her sister stopped herself before saying anything else.

“No, it’s okay Alex, go on,” she said and put on her glasses, she didn’t really need them, only for reading sometimes, but they made her look like the girl she had been before she had enlisted all those years ago. 

“What I’m trying to say is that Lena is crazy about you, so the chances of you fucking things up are zero to none,” Alex assured her like the good sister she was and she gave a doubtful hum in response. 

“Don’t you hum me, Kara Danvers, you got this! Now, go let the third most powerful person in the country spoil you, or woo you or whatever. Just don’t tell me the details of how you thank her for the evening,” her sister went on and she saw herself blushing when she looked back in the mirror.

“One time, that happened one time!” she defended herself, but she had blurted out certain details about Lena skills in bed at one point, something Alex was never going to allow her to live down for as long as they lived. 

“One time is one time too many and no amount of CIA training could have prepared me for that!” Alex said with a shutter in her voice and before she could apologize again her phone vibrated. It was Lena, she was downstairs waiting and she wasn’t ready yet!

“Got to go, thanks for listening,” she blurted out and pushed her old glasses up onto her nose, double-checked her suit and fixed her tie yet again.

“Knock her dead and let your hair down this isn’t an inspection soldier!” Alex laughed because of course her sister knew that she had her hair up, so she put her phone away and took a deep breath.

Loosening hair tie which held her now slightly shorter hair in place, she shook it out, so it fell down messily around her face and she ran her hand through it so it looked a bit wild and unkempt, but that suited her fine. Then giving her shoes one last quick polish she grabbed the single red rose by the door. Heading downstairs, she assured herself that she could do this, but stepping outside onto the street she felt her jaw drop, dropping all the way to the ground it felt like at the sight before her. Waiting next to a black limo was Lena, in a little black dress that left her shoulders exposed and her mouth went dry. Fuck, fuck, fuck and damn it Danvers maintain eye contact! Her inner drill Sergeant reminded her. Mission control we’re so screwed!

* * *

“Oh wow…” Lena gasped at seeing Kara in a dark blue suit that reminded her of when they’d first met and holy hell her girlfriend was handsome. It didn’t hurt that the suit showed off the blonde’s broad shoulders and narrow waist and something about seeing Kara in a suit holding a single red rose made her knees weak at the power the woman exuded.

“Uh… oh… here this is for you,” the blonde said after finding her voice squaring her shoulders and she both loved and hated how tall the woman was as she looked up into those blue eyes while not quite at eye-level with her, but no amount of heel would ever fix that. Maybe I should go around with a step-stool? she thought to herself. 

Taking the rose, she gave it sniff and smiled up at Kara who was looking at her with a slight blush to her cheeks. How someone could be so adorably cute while looking incredibly dapper at the same she had no idea, but Kara somehow pulled it off. 

“Ready to hit the town?” she asked while holding out her other hand for Kara to take and the blonde smiled nervously before taking it.

“You look amazing,” she said and kissed Kara gently on the lips before helping her into the limo. Keep it together Luthor, it’s only Kara, you know your girlfriend. Correction, it’s Kara, in a three-piece suit, with glasses on, her short hair down and wild and looking cute as hell. 

“Thank you... you look… well I’m thinking a lot of curse words right now about how good you look,” the blonde praised her, and she laughed at how polite Kara was being.

“Don’t hold back on my account darling,” she insisted and put her hand on Kara’s knee which made the blonde blush even harder as the limo started rolling.

“You…” the blonde started before leaning in to whisper into her ear. “You look fucking amazing, like... god damn how in freaking hell did I end up with a girl like you?” the blonde whispered in raspy sounding voice, and she found herself smiling from ear to ear while slowly rubbing the woman’s thigh.

“Captain Danvers, language,” she laughed again and then ran her hand down the woman’s arm. Muscles… no stick to the plan Luthor, stick to the plan! Don’t ask her top you in the backseat of this limo... this time.

“Sorry ma’am, ready to be wooed ma’am,” Kara teased her while giving her a quick salute. 

“Good, hope you and that bottomless stomach of yours is ready,” she promised and hoped that her research and interrogation of Alex would pay off with a night that Kara would never forget.

* * *

Kara felt like she was floating which was quite an achievement considering how she was also so full and didn’t remember laughing this much in years. Lena had taken her out for all you can eat potstickers, then to the movies, more accurately to a private Drive-In for a showing of Frozen with so much popcorn that her head had fit in the bucket while they sat on a picnic blanket. Once the movie ended it had been followed by the raven-haired woman asking her to dance and someone playing the violin had shown up out of nowhere. Humming the tune, she remembered leading Lena as they danced on the picnic blanket and how warm the woman had felt against her, and now they were in a penthouse hotel suite with these amazing views and it was all just too much. 

“Have I told you that I really like you in a suit?” Lena asked coming up behind holding down champagne glasses with sparkling water as she stood on the balcony overlooking the city. 

“Maybe a few times, but don’t stop on my account,” she found herself giggling, having ditched the tie, she took a deep breath of the night air before turning around to accept the glass Lena held out. 

“To us,” Lena said holding up her glass and she clinked hers against it with a smile. 

“To the greatest woman I’ve ever met,” she said and that made Lena smirk before shaking her head with laughter.

“Danvers you’re getting laid tonight, no need to lay it on so thick,” the raven-haired beauty, still in her tight dress minus the heels teased her.

“Yes! I mean you deserve it laid on thick... you accepted me completely, warts and all and no one has ever done that before,” she blurted out before taking a long sip from her drink.

“Well… ditto…” Lena said after a moment’s pause and they both looked out at the view. When a sudden breeze caused Lena to shiver, she took off her jacket right away and put it over the shorter woman’s shoulders. 

“Oh, you’re so getting it tonight,” the raven-haired beauty laughed and looked up at her with a twinkle in those emerald green eyes.

“Orrah!” she chuckled and put her arm around the waist of her girlfriend as they watched the lights of the city. 

“Have you given any thought to the President’s offer? To endorse you I mean?” she asked after a moment of silence and squeezed Lena a bit. 

“A little, I still think he’s crazy asking me that... I mean it’s more than two years until the elections,” Lena admitted and there was a tiny bit of fear to her voice.

“And a year until you're 35 and well... I think you’d be great at it and I can be a good trophy wife if needed… not sure about wearing dresses all the time but...” she started but then caught herself before she said more, but she’d already said too much.

“Trophy wife uh?” Lena asked as she looked up at her again with a raised eyebrow and putting down her drink the woman wrapped then both arms around her.

“A joke… me and Alex… joke… fuck…” she cursed as she panicked but it only made Lena smile at her even more, that damn smile.

“Well… I wouldn’t be averse to the idea... down the line... if you’re up for it and no dresses would be needed,” Lena admitted now looking a bit more nervous herself.

“Which… idea?” she asked and brushed an errant strand of black hair out of Lena’s flawless face after swallowing hard.

“Why not both? I mean… President Luthor-Danvers… does have a nice ring to it and if the vice-president isn't running I should honor John's wishes, right?” Lena asked and fuck floating, because now she felt like she could fly. A while back President Jones had approach Lena about running for office with his endorsement when his term was up but this was the first time Lena had uttered the word, President. They were really thinking about doing this? She wondered and then with an internal shrug decided that she'd always be at Lena's side. In for a penny in for a pound Danvers.

“I… like the sound of that… ma’am,” she said and in a fit of impulsiveness she picked the green-eyed girl of her dreams up in a bridal carry. If Lena needed her to be the First Lady then she could be that. 

“What are you doing Captain?” Lena asked with her green eyes wide but the tone of her voice almost a teasing purr.

“Taking my future wife to bed, promises were made after all,” she laughed and carried Lena Luthor one day to be Luthor-Danvers to the bedroom of the hotel suite. The future would come, it had a habit of doing that after all, but right now stripping Lena of that little black dress was well overdue and she was after all the impulsive one.

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited the last bit of the chapter a bit after posting. Yes they've been older in this story all along but it's only been hinted at two times. Once when Lena says "...hell I’ve not really dated anyone in over a decade" and Kara internal monologue revealing something to the effect of "It was time for a change, and time to come out of the shadows she’d been hiding in for the past decade" they're no spring chickens at least.
> 
> And here we are again, another story completed and when I started my mid-life crisis by writing fan fiction again last year I never thought I'd end up writing one, let alone three fics of this length. So a big thanks to those who have commented, given kudos and bookmarked this little tale of mine. I know my stories and perhaps methods of storytelling aren't everyone's cup of tea (still suck at slowburns for example), but I write for the dyslexic fun of it (most of the time) and I'm glad that some of you actually seem to enjoy them.
> 
> I'm already thinking about new stuff to write but haven't decided if I'll revisit my Together In All Things universe (Green Lantern Lena it's good I'm told and not just by my mom, check it out if you haven't) or if I'll try a new story. I've been pretty outspoken that my actual canon knowledge of the show doesn't extend much past season 2, and aside from the comic book blogs, fanfics and the cross-overs keeping me up to date somewhat I don't religiously watch it anymore since I really hate how it's written and what they've done to the characters. So with that said whatever I write will probably be another season 2-3 AU kind of deal. I'm very enamored with the mental images of Lena with a sword (Olympic level fencer and all that, thanks Instagram) or Lena in the Luthor warsuit which I'd love to work into a story somehow. 
> 
> Again thanks for reading, feel free to ignore my writer's rant ( I go on those a bit) and see you all again down the line.
> 
> p.s. I went through the entire story writing metals instead of medals, my brain is the worst but it's about the fun of the writing not how you write it. Right?


End file.
